Even better is when they destroy a bunch of virgin land to make a course when courses are already overbuilt in the area, then close it.
I lived in a city that had a mayor who was elected to a few terms and was going on 10-11 years in office. An out-of-state developer wanted to turn 400 acres of old growth forest by Lake Superior into a golf course, spending about 25 million. For some reason he made this basically the only thing he tried to get to happen in his last 2 years in office. This was also at a time when a lot of courses were struggling or closing because they had built too many in the early 2000s.
Many people were opposed to it but the usual sort of people thought it was great because ‘wow someone is spending money’. One fairly dim guy I knew who worked in construction said “YEAH. Do you know how many jobs that will make??”. The problem is they were going to hire a bunch of people to build it, which would take about 6 months, and then the permanent positions at the course were going to be like 6 people. Finally, they didn’t do it, the mayor left office, and basically nobody ever talked about it again.
Any decision made to create or preserve jobs is inherently wasteful. You’re spending money to avoid losing an economic output that the market has decided no longer needs to exist.
Capitalist economics is more complicated than that, though, since there are artificial boom-and-bust cycles. People do deserve employment.
The people really pushing the project were the developers, a few people who stood to make an outiszed portion of the money, and the apparently corrupt mayor who I’m sure was planning on lining his own pocket somehow.
People can be employed in fields where they’re needed. You wouldn’t argue about maintaining coal mining jobs, would you? I’m all for funding a “coal to clean energy” apprenticeship/certification program or something, but refusing to adopt fridges so the milkman doesn’t have to find a new job is a sure fire way to stifle progress and waste taxpayer money on subsidies.
It’s true, the way our capitalist system is set up it’s mainly the workers and less wealthy people in general who get screwed by progress and obsolescence. Wealthy people are very worried about it too of course, since something like phasing out coal could mean bankruptcy for them and they’d have to, oh no, get a job or something. Or you know, there goes the family dynasty… That’s harder to feel sorry for though, and it’s a lot easier for them to transition to something else, with some foresight.
It’s also opportunity cost. Literally anything else could also create jobs. How many jobs would building houses create? Solar or wind farm? A 24/7 orgy playground?
had a mayor who was elected to a few terms and was going on 10-11 years in office. An out-of-state developer wanted to turn 400 acres of old growth forest by Lake Superior into a golf course, spending about 25 million. For some reason he made this basically the only thing he tried to get to happen in his last 2 years in office. This was also at a time when a lot of courses were struggling or closing because they had built too many in the early 2000s.
Many people were opposed to it but the usual sort of people thought it was great because ‘wow someone is spending money’. One fairly dim guy I knew who worked in construction said “YEAH. Do you know how many jobs that will make??”. The problem is they were going to hire a bunch of people to build it, which would take about 6 months, and then the permanent positions at the course were going to be like 6 people. Finally, they didn’t do it, the mayor left office, and basi
Thanks for putting that last line in there. I was getting progressively more irate.
Ha, yeah, I guess my intro made it sound like it went through and then was closed. I was so happy when it finally didn’t happen and the obviously corrupt politician was gone.
I hate golf for reasons above, but I recently tried Top Golf, and if there is any sustainable future for the sport, that’s it.
A single fairway can serve ~100 tees with probably 500 people playing. And some of the games are super accessible to people of lower skill levels. We played a round of Angry Birds at a work party where the virtual targets were only maybe 25-30 yards away. Super fun.
I’ll second this. I hate "normal "golf but Top Golf is pretty fun. I like being able to get food and drinks too. It is quite pricey though so I don’t go very often (unless someone else is paying, lol). The first time I tried it was a vendor-sponsored event and I was like “huh, that’s kinda fun actually.”
Yeah, they have a big screen that maps a 3D Angry Birds piggie tower over the fairway, and the birds follow the path of your ball. It really is an impressive 1:1 mapping.
You got me reading about it. It sounds pretty cool. Like a cross between a driving range and bowling and video gaming. I would totally suck at it, but I could see how that would be fun.
Not a fan of the proper game but I do enjoy the driving range. I know some people jokingly say ‘just play minigolf’ but that’s missing the ‘punt a tiny thing really fucking far’ part.
For me there’s a certain amount of stress relief when I feel good contact with the ball. It can also be fun to try to be accurate the same as with other games like darts.
It’s the same thrill as any other game or sport. Many enjoy the challenge of trying to do something difficult and get better at it, and then enjoy doing it competitively, and/or cooperatively with friends.
In the case of golf, you also get the added enjoyment of it being a generally slow paced activity, usually done on a beautiful day in a pretty area with lots of grass and trees.
“I’ve got just the place for low-cost housing. I have solved this problem. I know where we can build housing for the homeless: golf courses! It’s perfect! Just what we need. Plenty of good land, in nice neighborhoods, land that is currently being wasted on a meaningless, mindless activity engaged in primarily by white, well-to-do male businessmen who use the game to get together to make deals to carve this country up a little finer amongst themselves.
I am getting tired, really getting tired, of these golfing cocksuckers in their green pants, and their yellow pants, and their orange pants, and their precious little hats and their cute little golf carts! It is time to reclaim the golf courses from the wealthy and turn them over to the homeless! Golfing is a arrogant, elitist game which takes up entirely too much room in this country. Too much room’ in this country! It is an arrogant game on its very design alone, just the design of the game speaks of arrogance.
Think of how big a golf course is - the ball is that fucking big! What do these pin-headed pricks need with all that land?! There are over seventeen thousand golf courses in America, they average over one hundred and fifty acres a piece - that’s three million plus acres, four thousand, eight hundred and twenty square miles - you could build two Rhode Islands and a Delaware for the homeless on the land currently being wasted on this meaningless, mindless, arrogant, elitist, racist, there’s another thing; the only blacks you’ll find at country clubs are carrying trays.
And a boring game. A boring game for boring people. You ever watch golf on television? It’s like watching flies fuck! And a mindless game, mindless. Think of the intellect it must take, to draw pleasure from this activity: hitting a ball with a crooked stick and then, walking after it! And then, hitting it again! I say pick it up asshole, you’re lucky you found the fucking thing! Put it in your pocket and go home, you’re a winner! You’ve found it! No chance of that happening. Dork-o in the plaid knickers is going to hit it again and walk some more. Let these rich cocksuckers play miniature golf! Let them fuck with a windmill for an hour and a half or so! See if there’s any real skill among these people.
Now I know there are some people who play golf who don’t consider themselves rich. FUCK 'EM! And shame on them for engaging in an arrogant, elitist passtime.”
He would love to muse about these times as he did so well, but he abandoned hope for humanity getting it’s head out of its ass decades before he died. Can’t say as I blame him, he was right about our nature. A person is great. People clumping up in groups in groups end in blood, cruelty, and tears on a long enough timeline.
I would take solace in those musings as well though.
I don’t know, I still find basketball more boring. That’s not to say that golf isn’t boring, but if I only had two channels I bet I’d have it on golf. In the background.
I’ve always found all sports boring to watch. Much like video games, I’d rather play it myself. Not golf though I tried it and it’s just too damn boring to participate in as well.
I fucking hate golf, and golf courses for this reason, HOWEVER they do make a somewhat useful end land use in reclaimed landscapes in urban areas (closed landfills for instance). I don’t get the need for greens etc. the original game started out on some Scottish moorland or glen, with native grasses.
The modern game, certainly, but I’d be surprised if they had the original idea. A quick wiki suggests it may have been the Dutch who laid the concept.
I’m no historian, but I’d agree with this out of the fact that I live an hour away from Scotland. The Scottish wouldn’t think up hitting a wee ball with a wee stick. Remember, these people literally throw tree trunks (caber toss) and rocks (stone put) for sport.
I do, however, believe they’d have great fun with the idea of smacking a ball really hard through the Highlands.
Screw ball golf, disc golf though solves all it’s problems
Can play in almost any environment so no habitat destruction needed. Might have to clear a few trees or brush in dense forest but otherwise mostly keeps forests intact
No elitism or arrogance. It’s one of the cheapest sports there is, just requires a couple $15 discs and most courses are free and are part of parks. Not much maintenance is needed on the course.
Easier to pick up. Most people can at least throw a disc 10 yards or so after a couple tries. Also more forgiving if drunk or high in that way.
More interesting to watch /play. Courses usually have obstacles like trees and the flight path of discs has a lot of lateral movement so if your good/lucky you can weave it through the obstacles.
My brother-in-law is so into it that he has one of those chain things you hit as a goal to practice with in his back yard. He got it as a Christmas present a few years ago and he thinks it’s pretty much the best thing he owns.
Yes! I’ve been saying this for years. Playing in the desert? Better wear your snake boots and bring plenty of water. Swamps? Bring floating balls, bring snake boots again, and watch for gators. Beach? Better get a good tee time to align with low tide. Leave no trace golfing. Extra strokes for disturbing the wildlife. Strokes off for litter and invasive species removal.
Just gonna say that golf is fun but I never played the real thing since it’s expensive, just golf videogames, minigolf is the one that I think it’s boring.
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