Hey! My taxes pay for that horn.

Near the end of the Olympics there was talk about how apparently the Australian team sucked it by not getting enough medals (personally I think they did pretty good) and they were saying that it was because of a lack of sports funding which drove all our trainers overseas. And some guy was, like "Well, if we want to win more medals, then we have to stop stinge-ing on the funds." (not a direct quote)

My own opinion was: Mmmm, I'd actually rather see money spent on more important things, such as Education, Transport, Health Care etc. And if that means not getting any more gold medals... then fine.

And then recently, this came out in the news.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/going-for-gold-but-at-what-cost-20080823-40xd.html

17 million dollars for each gold? I'll keep my crappy sponges thanks, and I don't want to spend any more money on god damned gold medals.

Also this.
"The Australian Olympic movement has already begun demanding a massive increase in funding. Australian Olympic Committee chief John Coates launched an inquiry to ask how much extra money was needed to win 55 medals at the 2012 London Games and 60 at the 2016 Olympics."

They seriously can't be so stupid, can they?

You can't buy medals.
No amount of funding will get us 55 gold in 4 years time unless we start buying athletes from overseas.

That said I don't have a problem with the governments spending on the Olympics anymore than I have a problem with other crap they spend money on, like white trash.

Andrew.C wrote:Near the end of the Olympics there was talk about how apparently the Australian team sucked it by not getting enough medals

Second.

Andrew.C wrote:Mmmm, I'd actually rather see money spent on more important things, such as Education, Transport, Health Care etc.

Don't be stupid. ALL MONEY FOR SPORT!!!

Andrew.C wrote:17 million dollars for each gold? I'll keep my crappy sponges thanks

Andrew.C wrote:They seriously can't be so stupid, can they?

They can and will.

Trizender wrote:You can't buy medals.

I don't know about that...

Trizender wrote:That said I don't have a problem with the governments spending on the Olympics anymore than I have a problem with other crap they spend money on, like white trash.

But... you DO have a problem with that, right? Right?

D'you reckon a system whereby we could allocate where our taxes went, or at least could choose from a list, would work? I don't think it would be too unfeasible... provided they organised it in a way that wasn't totally R-tarded.

I have said it before and i will say it again. I have no problem with the olympics. 17 mill on each medal.. well that may be a bit of an overkill i admit. But where else would you spend the money? would you rather the country get united once every 4 years, feeling good about being australian again (not that I ever don't) or would you rather then do up a minor section of highway?

And i don't think that people should be able to decide where their money went. Then a lot of things would be left undone. The public should never ever ever be given that type of control! Think about it andy, even at university where the people are meant to be of a base mean intellegence there are total and utter morons.

Tom wrote:And i don't think that people should be able to decide where their money went. Then a lot of things would be left undone. The public should never ever ever be given that type of control! Think about it andy, even at university where the people are meant to be of a base mean intellegence there are total and utter morons.

So very true. Hmmm, let me, perhaps, re-phrase my question:

Do you think there should be a system whereby I am allowed to allocate where everyone's money should be spent? The answer is: yes.

Andrew.C wrote: Do you think there should be a system whereby I am allowed to allocate where everyone's money should be spent? The answer is: yes.

That was the best 10 second argument ever... ever!

I think we need to spend less on sport, simply because we don't have equitable education, health care and social services throughout Australia. (looks around wildly for Val)

look at the Northern Territory- the education system up there has been screaming out for more schools/ funding/ teachers/ social workers/ doctors/ etc for years, and still we spend millions of dollars on 2 weeks every 4 years... Don't get me wrong, I'm at least a little excited when we win a gold medal- but i'd rather people in our own country weren't left on or below the poverty line for it.

Agreed. (Also more for science, obviously).

And, as you previously pointed out, that emoticon looks less like 'afraid' and more like 'being gang-probed.'

It's not like we have a choice between funding Olympic training OR education, health care etc. We can fund both, there was a huge budget surplus.

I think that in a country with such an obesity problem we should be doing everything we can to encourge athleticism. It would reduce the money needed for health care in the first place.

As for the Northern Territory, for every dollar they contribute to the budget they have 5 dollars spent on them. You and I get less than 1 dollar spent on us. I realise that is that is the point to a commonwealth but they can kiss my arse. Your health is mostly affected by what you eat and drink, not by how much money gets thrown at your poorly designed health system.

Trizender wrote:It's not like we have a choice between funding Olympic training OR education, health care etc. We can fund both, there was a huge budget surplus.

But there is a choice between Olympics OR a good education. (But I agree that throwing money at the problem won't just fix it... but it'll help. Especially if it's thrown at me... man I could own this freaken country if I had some more equipment, and supplies).

Trizender wrote:I think that in a country with such an obesity problem we should be doing everything we can to encourge athleticism. It would reduce the money needed for health care in the first place.

True, but 17 million dollars for one shitty medal?? 17 million?!! I don't even remember half the nobs who got gold: I remember the pole vaulter, was-his-name, because he was cool; I remember that little-too-flirty swimmer girl because she wasn't; and I remember Usain Bolt because He is God.
Are you sure it wouldn't have cost less just to give liposuction to everyone?

Trizender wrote:As for the Northern Territory, for every dollar they contribute to the budget they have 5 dollars spent on them. You and I get less than 1 dollar spent on us. I realise that is that is the point to a commonwealth but they can kiss my arse. Your health is mostly affected by what you eat and drink, not by how much money gets thrown at your poorly designed health system.

Burn on those Northern Territorians. All they can do better than us is suck and die!

Andrew.C wrote:

Trizender wrote:I think that in a country with such an obesity problem we should be doing everything we can to encourge athleticism. It would reduce the money needed for health care in the first place.

True, but 17 million dollars for one shitty medal?? 17 million?!! I don't even remember half the nobs who got gold: I remember the pole vaulter, was-his-name, because he was cool; I remember that little-too-flirty swimmer girl because she wasn't; and I remember Usain Bolt because He is God.
Are you sure it wouldn't have cost less just to give liposuction to everyone?

True, true.

These latest games have pretty much turned me off the Olympics completely anyway.
I don't know what the IOC was thinking when they let China host. Other than $$$$$ give me $$$$$$.

Trizender wrote: I don't know what the IOC was thinking when they let China host. Other than $$$$$ give me $$$$$$.

I think it was more along the lines of:

IOC wrote: Please don't leave- you provide more than half the competitors!

China had been threatening to pull out if they didn't get some recognition for all their years of flooding the competition with doped up... i mean pushing their athletes to be all they could be!

it was more along the lines of:

IOC wrote: Please don't leave- you provide more than half the competitors!

i love it.

But i agree with everyone. 17 mil does seem a little excessive. But given that it is spread over sooo many different sports, all of which have minor and major leagues, all of which are subsidised it is a skewed figure. If we had one a gold in every sport we competed in it would be a far far smaller figure. The government subsidises sport because it is good for everyone. It is great for those below the poverty line to give them something to do besides slapping their spouses kicking their dogs drinking and it makes people healthy.

The northern territory does need a lot of help but it is completely understandable why, its not as if it has ever really had a chance i mean like 50% of its population is aboriginal and they have only been allowed to vote for the last 40 years. How much change can a place have, and how much economic growth when half its population (a figure i pulled completely out of the air) have only been allowed to hold skilled jobs for less than a generation (based on white generation and on the understanding that to obtain a skill you have to have a base age (being school education 16 and skill growth another 1-4 years).

Basically we need more money and less useless useless land with equally useless highways that need constant maintaining because of our useless useless beating sun. If we were the size of italy we would have it better. But would you really give up the wide brown land, with its sweeping plains, its weeping rains (north), its rain forrests and its desserts, its adversity for a cultivated people filled monstrisity just to have more taxes to spend?

I like Tom's contributions on Government topics.

they make me feel good inside- not so much because they answer the question/ discussion point posed, but because they ramble on along ideas that leave unsure of what i was questioning in the first place, which means i'm not thinking about it- because i cannot understand half of what he's getting at, nor can i see how it relates...

Can you tell me the point in a sentence Tom- my attention span isn't what it used to/ should be!

Nein!

Andy wrote:

Trizender wrote:I think that in a country with such an obesity problem we should be doing everything we can to encourge athleticism. It would reduce the money needed for health care in the first place.

True, but 17 million dollars for one shitty medal?? 17 million?!! I don't even remember half the nobs who got gold: I remember the pole vaulter, was-his-name, because he was cool; I remember that little-too-flirty swimmer girl because she wasn't; and I remember Usain Bolt because He is God.
Are you sure it wouldn't have cost less just to give liposuction to everyone?

Fail argument is fail.

Am I the only one who seems to see this from a different perspective? It's not like they haggled a deal with the IOC over a bulk order of gold medals, and we got ripped off. Are the millions of dollars we're talking about here all the money Australia is investing into sport? Or is it all the money invested in the personal athlete's that achieved gold medals? Is there room for argument that money invested into sport isn't wasted due to it's effect on world politics, international relations, and tourism income?

Forum posters need to think outside the box.

Simmo! wrote:Is there room for argument that money invested into sport isn't wasted due to it's effect on world politics, international relations, and tourism income?

I think that may have been what Tom/Trev/Glen/etc. were trying to argue, in some form. I think what I was trying to say was couldn't we achieve these sorts of things without the criminally inefficient process of syphoning these funds through sporting events which, I think, drain a large proportion of the money into things only beneficial to the sport itself. I guess you could argue that "No. These things can only be achieved through sport." But I would want to see a pretty good argument for it if I was going to be convinced.

Can't we do both?

I... guess. But don't we need money for these things? Maybe we could filter some money away from other cruddy things, like politicians' salaries.

Andrew.C wrote:Maybe we could filter some money away from other cruddy things, like politicians' salaries.

Yet more arguements for my (not so) bloodless coo.

I was thinking of an alternative title for you Trev: Scorpio. Or, Mr. Scorpion. ? Either that or you totally need to change your avatar to this: http://download.lardlad.com/framegrabs/9F20/192.jpg

That's not going to happen.
I may change it to a pic of Scorpio. IF you get the pic. Might even change my name too.

Trev if you could just change your avatar to a small shrine dedicated to me that would be great tia

@ Trebor:

here you go

Or possibly