Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024) • Hacker News Board

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#131

Post by rwyinuse » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 1:34 PM UTC

a2tech wrote: post #14

This is the reality of building your life around sport—-there’s basically no money in it unless you’re on the extreme edge. I wish people would stop dumping their entire life’s energy into chasing it—-do something more useful like stamping parts out in a factory. Olympic athletes are stunningly focused achievers—I’d love to see that energy and drive applied to something that mattered.

Most stuff that "matters" or is "useful" also pays next to nothing, or has been outsourced to China if you happen to live in the West. There's nothing useful to do for most of today's workforce in post-industrial societies, except things like nursing which are severely underpaid.

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#132

Post by leosanchez » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 1:41 PM UTC

nothrowaways wrote: post #129

nothrowaways wrote: post #128

Onlyfans is online prostitution. I wonder how it is legal in countries that criminalize offline prostitution.

Also, Onlyfans is a bad influence on the young generation. Downvote me as much as you would like, but I can argue all night kn this.

I agree.

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#133

Post by ludston » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 1:46 PM UTC

itake wrote: post #91

a2tech wrote: post #14

This is the reality of building your life around sport—-there’s basically no money in it unless you’re on the extreme edge. I wish people would stop dumping their entire life’s energy into chasing it—-do something more useful like stamping parts out in a factory. Olympic athletes are stunningly focused achievers—I’d love to see that energy and drive applied to something that mattered.

> Olympic athletes are stunningly focused achievers—I’d love to see that energy and drive applied to something that mattered. Some of their focus comes from just being naturally talented at their activity. I am really focused on coding, b/c I have a natural affinity to working with computers, but that doesn't mean I can focus on gymnastics.

People often like what they are good at, true, but people become good at things through work and practice. I am tired of the general attitude that somebody will either like something or dislike it after they give it a little try, when pretty much any performance art, be it programming, playing sport, drawing or learning an instrument comes front-loaded with hundreds of hours of practice before somebody can get good enough at it to properly enjoy it.

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#134

Post by jalapenos » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 1:58 PM UTC

braza wrote: post #116

jalapenos wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fencing as done now looks legit stupid, so does racewalking. Javelin, while slightly more cool, is you throwing a stick. Mildly interesting for a few seconds. Football is a top tier sport because it's entertaining. People will pay to see it. Hence there's money to be earned. If someone wants to spend their time seeing how far they can throw a stick, cool, but they shouldn't be surprised they're waking up to an empty…

I know where the argument comes from, but at an extreme watching football with 22 folks running behind a ball in a slow game where 97% of the time nothing happens in terms of scoring, and in terms of tactics, today sounds like a handball game; it's boring (and I say that as a Brazilian and having attended more than 100+ in the stadium and more than 600 on TV). The entertainment in the Olympic games is in the fact tha…

What you say sounds logical, but it's nevertheless observably obviously wrong, and that's what's important.

All the figures bear out that people find football more entertaining than extreme feats. Maybe they like the slow pace and tension as it's more relatable to their own lives, or because the lulls in action allow some socializing or whatever.

Otherwise they'd spend their weekends watching hours of shark wrestling or whatever.

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#135

Post by ludston » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 2:05 PM UTC

llamaimperative wrote: post #118

syndicatedjelly wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the most dystopian and depressing things I've ever read. Quit your dreams and be productive for the Economy, peasant.

Is it equally dystopian if you consider that “be productive for the economy” is shorthand for and quite closely related to “do something of value for your fellow community members?” (Yes obviously there are extreme and very visible edge cases, but 99.999% of things normal people get paid to do is something valuable for their neighbor)

Are athletes are working themselves to injury for the sake of improving the lives of the people around them? I do not see this. Athletes are competing for themselves: for fame, money and to feed their egos.

I do not see the virtue in athletics given that being an entertainer, and being powerful and fit are intrinsically rewarding enough. I'd much rather we were funding musicians and artists, but only a fraction of funding goes to these in comparison to the behemoth that is sports.

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#136

Post by igor47 » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 2:15 PM UTC

jalapenos wrote: post #115

System working as designed? Like, if your hobby is throwing a disc as far as you can, have fun. But don't expect many people to pay to watch right? But people pay a whole lot to see nice bodies doing sexual stuff. So since money comes from what other people value, no need for a surprised Pikachu face.

I mean... Yes okay. But is this the world you prefer? Wouldn't it be nice if we could both tell children to be the best they could be at something, to strive for greatness... And then also supported them when they did? Or would you rather reduce humanity to the cold calculus of capitalism?

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#137

Post by nradov » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 2:18 PM UTC

rwyinuse wrote: post #131

a2tech wrote: post #14

This is the reality of building your life around sport—-there’s basically no money in it unless you’re on the extreme edge. I wish people would stop dumping their entire life’s energy into chasing it—-do something more useful like stamping parts out in a factory. Olympic athletes are stunningly focused achievers—I’d love to see that energy and drive applied to something that mattered.

Most stuff that "matters" or is "useful" also pays next to nothing, or has been outsourced to China if you happen to live in the West. There's nothing useful to do for most of today's workforce in post-industrial societies, except things like nursing which are severely underpaid.

Huh? Unemployment is low and median wages are up. Nursing might not be the highest paying job but they earn a median wage of $86k which is pretty good in most areas.

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#138

Post by zajio1am » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 2:21 PM UTC

hypeatei wrote: post #35

grecy wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One third of all donations on GoFundMe are for medical expenses. [1] the very vast majority of that must be Americans. I’m staggered how many Americans are steadfastly against socialized healthcare for all, but immediately turn to GoFundMe in desperation when their insurance tells them to take a hike. I can’t help thinking “just do that for everyone” [1] https://time.com/5516037/gofundme-medical-bills-one-third-ce...

> in desperation when their insurance tells them to take a hike. Socialized healthcare is good because it doesn't mean you're tied to a job or worried about in/out network hospitals. But, care would still be rationed as it doesn't magically provide us with infinite resources. I just like to point this out since there are very good arguments for socialized care in the US, but this isn't one of them.

There is still out-of-network healthcare (i.e. specific services or entire healthcare providers not covered by single payer) in many countries with universal healthcare. But it is usually clear which is which.

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#139

Post by trogdor » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 2:22 PM UTC

braza wrote: post #111

TriangleEdge wrote: post #10

Opinion: I stopped thinking the olympics was cool when I saw a 14 year old win gold in diving. Now I think it's a business exploiting people for money. Like any other business, if they don't like it they can stop doing it. Sports has a bad ROI on average afaik.

I knew 2 former UFC fighters (circa 2010/2016) that got USD 20K in average for their fights. The issue is that this does not cover 100% of the whole preparation that they need to be in the octagon. For instance, from little things since food and flight tickets, going to special medication (one of them was suspended by the USDA and got banned from UFC), sparring, fighting camping, and so on. One of them told me that t…

>USDA

You meant USADA, right?

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#140

Post by zeroCalories » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 2:23 PM UTC

ludston wrote: post #135

llamaimperative wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it equally dystopian if you consider that “be productive for the economy” is shorthand for and quite closely related to “do something of value for your fellow community members?” (Yes obviously there are extreme and very visible edge cases, but 99.999% of things normal people get paid to do is something valuable for their neighbor)

Are athletes are working themselves to injury for the sake of improving the lives of the people around them? I do not see this. Athletes are competing for themselves: for fame, money and to feed their egos. I do not see the virtue in athletics given that being an entertainer, and being powerful and fit are intrinsically rewarding enough. I'd much rather we were funding musicians and artists, but only a fraction of fu…

Athletes serve as aspirational figures that drive interest towards sports that keep people healthy. There is an ugly skinny-fat / fat-fat hatred of sports born from post-war folklore about jocks and nerds.