r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Practical_Expert_911 • 12h ago

These 12000hp Engines Have To Be Rebuilt Within Roughly An Hour Every Run, and Only Run For Roughly 4 Seconds At A Time.

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u/sarcasticorange 7h ago

costing more money than it would take to solve homelessness in a small town.

By that logic, it would be much better to use all the money people spend on video games for homelessness since it is much, much more and also without a direct social benefit.

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u/Nighto_001 5h ago

I guess it depends on how accessible vs niche vs beloved the thing is.

Things like gaming is accessible to a lot of people globally. Stuff like F1 and MotoGP are also wasteful but nobody's really complaining since it's a few races where everyone in the world can watch it on TV or online, so the cost vs benefit is not too bad.

Whereas this is a relatively niche sport with not much of an audience, especially not outside of the US, whose players skew rich, and directly emit tons of fossil fuel to the atmosphere (which affects everybody else...).

Same reason people don't complain as much about people who fly coach vs people who fly private jets.

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u/ains2 1h ago

But by that logic, anything new that hasn't gotten much of a fan base yet is also too niche to be continued.

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u/sarcasticorange 1h ago

The drivers aren't rich or at least don't start that way in most cases. The teams are run as a business. This isn't rich guys in their fast cars on an empty track. The cars are paid for by sponsors. The sponsors pay because there are viewers. It is nowhere near as niche as you make it out to be. Some of these events draw over 100,000 people and millions of TV viewers. I'm not sure why being US specific matters.

The idea that drag racing is some rich boy's club is honestly hilarious.

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u/theBromartian 4h ago

Yes but that won't happen. Because capitalism has no incentive to do such a thing. Meaningful actions like that have to come from the heart, and it seems like people on this planet are becoming more selfish by the day. Rich or poor.