Are any of you folks from the UK attending the Olympics?

[jackman]

people who like sports shouldn't knock those who don't nor vice versa. the funny part is that everyone thinks it's ok to namecall until they're on the wrong side of the kudos parties. then it's time to get all righteous. lmao. wtf-evvaaaa.

and shell, you have one of the sharpest tounges on this site. u pop in on someone and cut them up 40 ways from sunday and then leave them with the avatar smiling at them - further pissing them off.

[fr0d0]

The queen looked just as pissed off at her jubilee bash. It's her PR front - just try not to show any emotion either way. lol at trying not to die

[Napoléon]

As for the ceremony itself, I really didn't get the whole bit where they had nurses dancing and kids in hospital beds.

It was all about G.O.S.H. (Great Ormand Street Hospital). I would of thought that the commentators would tell people this. I blame the coverage you get in your country if people don't understand it. Hell even us British people didn't get some of it, but that's why the commentators are there to tell everyone.

[Tiberius]

i can't really believe you don't see how wrong this is. it's like going to eat at a 4-star restaurant and tipping the server $1 for her time, when an appropriate tip may be $20. considering their salary is partially reduced below minwage since they're expected to get tips. it's completely rude and doesn't do anything for the economy, it makes another disgruntled employee who is gone all day (at work) yet can't afford the bus pass that would take him there daily. it could spin off into tons of bad things, besides workplace morale and criminality to get more money to survive properly. if you're on welfare here, you're doing much better than someone who would make less than minwage - so why bother working? you could sit home on your hump and make money.

No, I don't see what is wrong with it. The wage for a job is the result of two things:

1) How much the employer is willing to pay a person to do it.
2) How little the potential employee is willing to accept for doing it.

The wage is determined as a value that lies between those two extremes.

The problem with minimum wage is that it is the government deciding that every single possible job is worth $x and above, where $x is the minimum wage, and that simply is not the case. There are people who would rather work for less than $x than not have a job, and there are employers who do not value certain jobs as being worth $x and above.

Why isn't the minimum wage $20? Why not $50? If it were that high, unemployment would skyrocket, because small business would not be able to afford to pay people and would go bankrupt, and big business would simply move all low-paid jobs to a country which doesn't have such laws.

As for welfare, well I don't agree with that either. If you are on welfare, you should not be allowed to simply sit at home all day. You should be actively seeking work, and if you don't, you don't get paid. Welfare should be an absolute minimum amount as well, to convince people that getting a job is much better.

ok man. they're not competing for the shiny things as much as the status that they're the recognized best in the world at what they do. btw, if shiny medals are so bad, why do we use them for posts and years? lol.

Right, and that can be done without all the ridiculous spending on ceremonies and everything else that comes hand in hand with the Olympics. Look, I love sport, I watch Wimbledon and football. The thing is, Wimbledon isn't funded by the taxpayer, it's funded by the people who go and watch it. Likewise, the leagues in football are funded by the people who watch the matches. I'm fine with that; if people want to spend their own money on that, fine. My problem is with the government spending my money for me, on things that are utterly irrelevant compared with feeding and sheltering homeless people, some of which include children.

As for your question on why we use medals here, I honestly hope you realise there is a difference between actual gold and a picture of gold...

i won't try to defend them anymore, i assumed this lot was supposed to be an open-minded crew - don't knock people based on their race, the sexuality, etc... except the athletes, they're just dumb! ok, i've lost interest. i like the damn olympics and appreciate the work they put in to be the best.

Never said they were dumb. I appreciate the work they put in too, but it's not worth £9 billion to have them all in one place for two weeks in order to see who is the best, not to me, and not the country.

[jackman]

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i can't really believe you don't see how wrong this is. it's like going to eat at a 4-star restaurant and tipping the server $1 for her time, when an appropriate tip may be $20. considering their salary is partially reduced below minwage since they're expected to get tips. it's completely rude and doesn't do anything for the economy, it makes another disgruntled employee who is gone all day (at work) yet can't afford the bus pass that would take him there daily. it could spin off into tons of bad things, besides workplace morale and criminality to get more money to survive properly. if you're on welfare here, you're doing much better than someone who would make less than minwage - so why bother working? you could sit home on your hump and make money.

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No, I don't see what is wrong with it. The wage for a job is the result of two things:

1) How much the employer is willing to pay a person to do it.
2) How little the potential employee is willing to accept for doing it.

The wage is determined as a value that lies between those two extremes.

The problem with minimum wage is that it is the government deciding that every single possible job is worth $x and above, where $x is the minimum wage, and that simply is not the case. There are people who would rather work for less than $x than not have a job, and there are employers who do not value certain jobs as being worth $x and above.

Why isn't the minimum wage $20? Why not $50? If it were that high, unemployment would skyrocket, because small business would not be able to afford to pay people and would go bankrupt, and big business would simply move all low-paid jobs to a country which doesn't have such laws.

As for welfare, well I don't agree with that either. If you are on welfare, you should not be allowed to simply sit at home all day. You should be actively seeking work, and if you don't, you don't get paid. Welfare should be an absolute minimum amount as well, to convince people that getting a job is much better.

you're looking at the entire problem thru the lens of the business owner. sure, they want pay the lowest wages possible, but there's a balance that needs to be acheived with productivity. if often costs a lot more to fire someone than it does to keep them aboard. if you want productivity you treat people right. a lot of grunt jobs are what keep the more skilled jobs afloat. one can't go smoothly without the other. paying them as little as they'll accept is simply not fair. right now, some places it's $7.25/hr - if you even get to work 40hrs in a week - you're making $290/week. take taxes out, cost of doing biz (bus pass, lunch, etc.). now assume you live somewhere that needs gas, water, elec, what's left? this is the min as it stands. now remove that and allow owners to hire people at $4/hr. you won't be able to even afford to work.

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ok man. they're not competing for the shiny things as much as the status that they're the recognized best in the world at what they do. btw, if shiny medals are so bad, why do we use them for posts and years? lol.

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Right, and that can be done without all the ridiculous spending on ceremonies and everything else that comes hand in hand with the Olympics. Look, I love sport, I watch Wimbledon and football. The thing is, Wimbledon isn't funded by the taxpayer, it's funded by the people who go and watch it. Likewise, the leagues in football are funded by the people who watch the matches. I'm fine with that; if people want to spend their own money on that, fine. My problem is with the government spending my money for me, on things that are utterly irrelevant compared with feeding and sheltering homeless people, some of which include children.

As for your question on why we use medals here, I honestly hope you realise there is a difference between actual gold and a picture of gold...

i have nothing to say to the part about funding. it appears money means everything to you. funny the only ones complaining about it are the ones who weren't elected into office tho. i would tend to give them a little credit for forethought.

and uh ... i can't believe i have to say this but i'm gonna need you to explain to me how pictures of gold are different from actual gold!

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i won't try to defend them anymore, i assumed this lot was supposed to be an open-minded crew - don't knock people based on their race, the sexuality, etc... except the athletes, they're just dumb! ok, i've lost interest. i like the damn olympics and appreciate the work they put in to be the best.

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Never said they were dumb. I appreciate the work they put in too, but it's not worth £9 billion to have them all in one place for two weeks in order to see who is the best, not to me, and not the country.

per the bolded (mine): the "not to me" part i can't argue. the "and not the country" part i'd have to wonder what you know that the elected officials don't know, to allow you to make such a claim.

[fr0d0]

Minimum wage

The owner will make more profit the less he pays his staff.

We agree a minimum standard of living.

If the owner can't run a business paying staff enough to live on, then his business isn't viable. The business deserves to fail.

Any greedy person would rather have more luxuries and pay staff as little as possible.

Supposedly we live on a civilized society that controls such primitive injustice.

[Reforged]

I don't think the UK will lose out either. I've heard predictions of a 13bn return. And the countries morale will take a huge boost. That's what we need to help turn the economy around.

From wikipedia on the 2012 London Olympics:
"Financing
The costs of mounting the Games are separate from those for building the venues and infrastructure, and redeveloping the land for the Olympic Park. While the Games are privately funded, the venues and Park costs are met largely by public money.
The original budget for the games was £2.4 billion, but this was increased almost fourfold to about £9.3 billion ($14.46 billion) in 2007.[81] The revised figures were announced to the House of Commons on 15 March 2007 by Tessa Jowell. Along with East End regeneration costs, the breakdown was:

Building the venues and infrastructure for the Games: £5.3 billion
Elite sport and Paralympic funding: £400 million
Security and policing: £600 million
Regeneration of the Lower Lea Valley: £1.7 billion
Contingency fund: £2.7 billion
VAT: £800 million"
Claiming you can turn in a substantial profit: Priceless

Keep in mind this prediction is from 2007 and various more recent investigations have claimed it will cost significantly more but vary in their figures:
http://news.sky.com/story/920409/sky-inv...-tops-12bn
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...imate.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/mar...udget-cost

These sources are obviously not something you would stake your life on but it definitely does not bode well.
I would also beware of predictions made by the government:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...ouble.html

Also, please go on 4od and type in:
Dispatches: Cashing in on the games.
It will inform you on the negative effect reckless profiteering during the olympics will have on our reputation and in turn tourism which is a major source of income for our country. An assessment firmly backed by Which and many experts.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

people who like sports shouldn't knock those who don't nor vice versa

Why not? It's a national pastime here in Australia.The majority of Aussies are sports mad and think anyone who doesn't like sports is odd,to say the least.

Those who do not enjoy spectator sports think professional athletes are mainly no neck,mono brow, knuckle dragging Neanderthals, and spectators much the same,except very unfit. Of course one does not express any kind of anti sports sentiment in Oz unless one has a death wish.

The Olympic Committee churlishly rejected my suggestion of reviving gladiatorial contests for the Olympics. (I thought as an end to the opening ceremony the first year to see how they were received )

[Speak Silence]

I won't be attending the games, no. It's too far to travel, hotel prices are horrendous and I didn't get any tickets. Although I doubt I would have gone if I could have as I find sports boring.

One of the reasons I'm not happy about the Olympics being held here is because of what has happened to the surrounding areas of the stadium.
Local residents were forced to move out of homes that they had been living in for over 40 years just for something that will last only a couple of weeks.
The government doesn't care about those people, they were poor and 'unsightly' so the government decided to sweep them under the rug to make London look pretty.

Another thing I'm concerned about is that the stadium will likely never see use again. Let's forget about how much it actually cost to build for a second and pay attention to how much it will cost just to keep around.
The stadium in Beijing costs China around 11 million a year to simply keep it around. It hasn't been used much (if at all) since their Olympics.

So you know, lets add another 10million a year that we could have used to help get our country out of debt or make new jobs to 9 billion we wasted.

[Shell B]

people who like sports shouldn't knock those who don't nor vice versa. the funny part is that everyone thinks it's ok to namecall until they're on the wrong side of the kudos parties. then it's time to get all righteous. lmao. wtf-evvaaaa.

and shell, you have one of the sharpest tounges on this site. u pop in on someone and cut them up 40 ways from sunday and then leave them with the avatar smiling at them - further pissing them off.

Haha, the thing is, jackman, I don't fuck with people until they have already made a snide remark. I make sure of it. Every single time you see me shoving it up someone's ass, you can find a reason. At any rate, I don't think either side that was being pissy was right. You and Tiberius had something going back and forth, which is fine. Others were just ripping into RD for no reason other than his opinion, which is fuckdumb.

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I should also point out that I heard a fucking parade going by Tiberius' house at an ungodly hour. That alone would piss me off about the Olympics.