Quote:
Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame
That, right there, is exactly why this thread has started up, as someone has pointed out earlier.
There is plenty of economic benefit to having gold-medal producing athletes.
All I have to do is look at the our gold medal ambitions in ice hockey (Olympics or World Juniors, both managed by federally-funded Hockey Canada), and realize the latent benefits we get from having world-class athletes don the Canadian jersey. If we were national or perennial on-ice losers, the game wouldn't be as strong as it is today, and wouldn't be the economic institution that multitudes of industries derive benefit from.
Not to mention high-performing athletes and athletic systems can have trickle-down benefits for the general health and interest in sports in today's out-of-shape Canadian population.
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The reason why we have world class hockey players has very little or nothing to do with the Olympic movement or tax dollars. Also when evaluating the best use of capital, just simply pointing out small benefits does not suffice as there's an opportunity cost to consider when making decisions. Economic benefit of gold medals vs millions to spend on MRI machines/staff, infrastructure improvements, higher education, tax cuts, etc. There's plenty of more important priorities that I'm sure if put on a referendum ballot Canadians would rather have their tax money spent.