Hacker News Reader

Comment by thecodeore | Hacker News Reader

"Do you consider entertainment to have a real value for society?"

I thought we were talking about sports? Sports does not even have any entertainment value, it is a complete waste of time and resources

View on HN

I'm far from a fan of any sport. I absolutely abhor the disparity between professional athletes earnings and the "working" class' earnings. And abhor even more the money spent on college football (e.g., the budget for our university library was being slashed so much that frequently used journals were having their subscriptions cut, while at the same time the football team got a new stadium and dorm). So I say this as a non-fan of sports - sports can definitely have entertainment value. Just like I'm a fan predominantly of sci-fi and comedy, but I really don't enjoy a lot of horror, people have different tastes in entertainmetn. Just because you and I may not have a taste for sports entertainment, that doesn't mean it isn't entertainment.

"And abhor even more the money spent on college football (e.g., the budget for our university library was being slashed so much that frequently used journals were having their subscriptions cut, while at the same time the football team got a new stadium and dorm)."

The irony is that at almost every university, the football team is a profit center, not a cost center. It' entirely likely that your library would have had deeper budget cuts without that football team.

So the hundreds of millions of people who line up and pay to watch sporting events each year are paying to not be entertained?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com