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

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

#161

Post by jalapenos »

eviks wrote: post #142
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.

> But don't expect many people to pay to watch right? Why did you ignore the fact from the article that people do pay to watch (it's one of the most watched events in the world) it's just that that money doesn't reach the athletes? Not sure which pokemon represents that

It's not a great business model as an athlete though is it now? Not really going to build up a following when you do it once every 4 years, or maybe only once. And unless you're in a prestigious event like the 100m sprint you're closer to a clown entertainment role wise, swinging your ball on a string or whatever.

Sure, an actual clown will get paid a tad better than zero by their circus, but they don't have the upside of a potential lucrative clown shoe sponsorship deal if they win.

TL;DR: these athletes knew the deal before they went in, and shouldn't act victim when they have to show their butts on only fans because their gamble didn't land.

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

#162

Post by llamaimperative »

RugnirViking wrote: post #159
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)

> 99.999% of things normal people get paid to do is something valuable for their neighbor My intuition is that you will find a small and decreasing number of people agree with or believe this

Sure, but that's because they're wrong.

Consider the counterfactual. In order for it to be true that many people are paid for work that isn't valuable, it'd have to be true that many people are willingly parting with their money for no reason at all.

That does happen, of course, and it's so special we think highly of people when they do it (it's called charity).

Just because people can't reason about the transmission of value throughout a complex economy doesn't mean it's not happening. In fact that's the beauty of currency and market economies: it doesn't need to be comprehensible to anyone outside of the transaction.

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

#163

Post by psb217 »

nradov wrote: post #152
psb217 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not unreasonable to argue for socialized healthcare based on treatment denials in private healthcare, since there are impactful differences in the incentives driving denials and rationing in private vs socialized healthcare. I agree that the argument should be more nuanced than just "denials happen". The incentive for private health insurers is to raise prices and increase denial rate until people are unwilling…

There is no such incentive for private health insurers. You have completely misunderstood how the business works. https://www.cms.gov/marketplace/private-health-insurance/med...

If there was no incentive for an entire class of businesses to do X, you would not have to actively work to stop them from doing X.

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

#164

Post by mensetmanusman »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #145

It's fine when Sports Illustrated does it- that's a legitimate publication that will subtly hide the most interesting bits and retain all the money from advertising and sales. When an athlete does it directly and retains the money themselves, that's a disgrace.

The content on the two content providers might be very different than what you expect.

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

#165

Post by tsupiroti »

llamaimperative wrote: post #117
AngryData wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define "something that mattered", because over half the stuff posted on hackernews is a complete waste of time and effort if your only real metric is profitability. The vast majority of "hacking" in general is of negative financial value.

Right but GP’s comment would apply if someone posted a complaint about “why is no one paying me a salary to build an ESP32 thermometer that tickles my feet when it gets below 80 outside?”

Well, there are often threads lamenting that open source maintainers don't get paid more.

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

#166

Post by tsupiroti »

llamaimperative wrote: post #162
RugnirViking wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 99.999% of things normal people get paid to do is something valuable for their neighbor My intuition is that you will find a small and decreasing number of people agree with or believe this

Sure, but that's because they're wrong. Consider the counterfactual. In order for it to be true that many people are paid for work that isn't valuable, it'd have to be true that many people are willingly parting with their money for no reason at all. That does happen, of course, and it's so special we think highly of people when they do it (it's called charity). Just because people can't reason about the transmission…

"GDP measures everything except that which is worthwhile"

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

#167

Post by mensetmanusman »

542354234235 wrote: post #120
linotype wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* Startups that exit, software engineers * Pharma companies, US taxpayers funding basic research * Waltons, Walmart employees The list is endless.

It is weird that it seems like the people that are generating value and the people extracting value aren't ever the same people.

Information asymmetry has never played such a large role in income inequality as it does today.

I’m really hoping people are empowered to use these artificial intelligence systems to level the playing field. No idea what the likelihood of this is to happening though.

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

#168

Post by JamesLeonis »

The comments here are depressing, especially coming from a forum that hypes unprofitable and niche companies competing against larger "profitable" and "popular" companies.

By the logic here us programmers should never work for startups and work only for the Big Tech companies because, frankly, they pay far far better and much more stable.

By the logic here you shouldn't found companies because it's too niche. You can "make more money" being a senior product manager for Big Tech.

By the logic here we all should move to New York and go into Finance because it pays more than Tech.

And to really hammer the point home, by the logic here nobody should play High School sports or on a A/AA Farm Teams, the very farms of mediocrity that, once in a while, produce genuine greatness that go on to the AAA circuit.

Be careful disparaging niches and unprofitability because that argument can and will be made against you too.

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

#169

Post by refurb »

grecy wrote: post #8
PartiallyTyped wrote: post #2

Reminds me how GoFundMe is effectively a healthcare insurance that's based on donations. https://time.com/5516037/gofundme-medical-bills-one-third-ce...

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...

I’d be interested to see stats on how many are Americans.

It was big news in Singapore where parents were raising millions for their children with a rare genetic disease.

Singapore has social medicine, but it doesn’t pay for gene therapy (but it’s paid for in the US through insurance).

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/crowdfunding-r...

Then add on top all the ones I saw from surrounding SE Asian countries and it’s must add up.

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

#170

Post by jalapenos »

igor47 wrote: post #136
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?

Yeah but I'm not going to tell them throwing a disc is greatness, and I'm not going to tell them to make up the gap between what they think an activity is worth and what society thinks it's worth by becoming a whiner. That'd be abuse.

Support is a two way street, and I'd rather kids grow up to be strong and able to be those supporters of others than end up a depressed lonely loser, when they could've been happy instead, because they pissed their efforts on some trivia.

I found your capitalism quip particularly amusing. I know it's just a parroting of programming from your university days, but I'm sure there's someone in a labour camp in North Korea who'd crack at least a brief smile at the idea of a poor downtrodden Olympian proletarian spending all day practicing throwing a stick because it's their passion.

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