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Free Lunch

On Thu, 30 May 2013 21:33:52 -0700, Jeanne Douglas
wrote in alt.atheism:

In article 20130530211216.62301797baf369cdf79fd3c8@fidemturb are.com,
"Fidem Turbare, the non-existent atheist goddess"
wrote:

On Fri, 31 May 2013 00:07:03 +0100
"Alex W." wrote:
On Thu, 30 May 2013 10:01:10 -0500, Attila Iskander wrote:
"Alex W." wrote in message
. ..
On Wed, 29 May 2013 21:10:31 -0500, Attila Iskander wrote:
"Free Lunch" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 29 May 2013 20:49:33 -0400, wrote in
alt.atheism:

Anyone with any knowledge of history knows the Eisenhower
Interstate Highway system was a defense project.

Nonsense. It was a civil works project to improve travel
infrastructure.

It was both
They are NOT mutually exclusive

Just look at another military funded project that is in common
PUBLIC use today
The Internet

Just look al all the spin-off that came from Kennedy's "going to
the moon"

What people like you don't grasp is that the indirect benefits of
such projects are otten greater than the original purpose.

Got another one: the Hoover Dam. The construction cost at
the time was less than $50 million (around $800 million in
today's tax dollars). Benefits, however, are HUGE: from
providing water to 8 million people and irrigating a million
acres of farmland to an electricity-generating capacity in
excess of 2,000MW and creating commercial opportunities
(tourism and leisure activities).

Indeed
There are projects which when allied with a bit of vision, which is
far too rare in government, and the ability to finance over the
long term with no need for immediate profit, that are perfect for
government projects The opposite is government entities who are
blackmailed to build sports stadium which mostly only really
benefit the sports franchise

Might make for an interesting cost-benefit analysis. A
sports stadium will encourage economic activity (think
increased tourism, travel and hospitality, or the influx of
a bunch of high-earning high-spending players) but whether
this is enough to outweigh the investment of several hundred
million is another issue.

That's interesting.

We need to spend more time going to the Moon or Mars, than we do
building sports stadiums for business entities.

... or funding the Olympic boondoggle every four years....

Olympics are an example of wasting tax revenues on a giant party. The
event should be privately funded, and have to apply for and conform to
permits like many other major events.

I still take pride in how LA ran the 1984 Olympics. Ran it brilliantly,
convinced the people of the city to vary their working hours to relieve
traffic jams, AND ran a profit.

And they did it almost completely with available infrastructure.