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Comment by jfengel | Hacker News Reader

The whole building isn't economic or productive. They could probably make more money tearing it down and replacing it with a Starbucks.

The vast majority of human activity isn't productive. And that's awesome. We've got so much wealth that we can afford to use it on things that are merely pretty or interesting, like video games and space telescopes and flowers.

It would be nice if we could use more of it to ensure that people have the basics, but that's rarely about lack of money. It's nearly always due to some more systemic problem that can't be fought just by throwing money at it.

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> The whole building isn't economic or productive. They could probably make more money tearing it down and replacing it with a Starbucks.

It likely has economic impact vastly larger than any Starbucks via tourism.

And what does "economic impact" means? A bunch of people burning jet fuel to get there and spend some hours looking at it? Why not working towards helping other people?

Buying from the cafes nearby. Patronizing the hotels. Going to see a show after. All the things one does in the neighborhood around a tourist attraction.

A week-long golf tournament in my town brings in 200k+ people and local government touts a $190M economic impact number for that. I'm sure it's fudged to be as high as possible, but pretending Notre Dame doesn't have an economic benefit to Paris would be odd.

Money means nothing. Human time is what matters. Consider that back at their place of origin things did not get done. Economic impact means nothing. If I gave you $100 to watch me do nothing, what value this transaction created? There is virtually nothing to show for at the end but we created $100 of economic impact...

> If I gave you $100 to watch me do nothing, what value this transaction created?

That seems entirely up to you.

I have always been disgusted by this sort of low, mediocre, pseudo-moral argument. "Why build these grand churches? You could feed people with that money!" "Why put all this effort into beautiful buildings? You could build more low-income housing for the same cash!" It sickens me.

We can do both. Man does not live by bread alone. Utilitarian mediocrity is satisfied with a full stomach and keeping warm.

Not all tourists in Paris comme from far away, probably a majority of tourists came by train or car. I never take a plane to visit Paris.

Admission was free to the cathedral itself, though you needed to pay to visit the roof.

Of course it was a draw to Paris in general. It's hard to measure its impact, since the cathedral fire coincides with COVID, but Paris tourism has nearly reached pre-pandemic levels and remains the most-visited city in the world.

I don't honestly believe it would be a net economic benefit to put a Starbucks there. But more to the point, the whole thing is there just because people like to look at it. That's all the "productivity" it needs.

>but that's rarely about lack of money

Yes, it is the lack of action. People are selfish. End of story. We have the tech and knowledge to fix it all, but burning a ton of kerosene to travel to the other side of the world for 2 a weeks vacation is more desirable.

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