Comments by "LancesArmorStriking" (@LancesArmorStriking) on "Why Hosting The Olympics Isn't Worth It Anymore" video.

  1. By official metrics? Certainly not. The US, in international corruption-level studies, usually ranks in the high teens. Out of ~200 countries, not bad! ..Until you consider that lobbying is not counted as corruption, which it should, only because it's considered legal in the country in which it's practiced. At that point, measuring by sheer volume (close to 3.5 billion)- the US should rank at the very bottom. The most marked difference between the US and developing countries is that corruption is hidden much better here- you don't have flight agents asking for a $300 "transactional fee" like I did a few years ago in St. Petersburg, in addition to the standard costs for rescheduling a flight. There is no pocketing in the U.S.. However, (relevantly) Congress' tax plans, national underdevelopment in both physical and digital infrastructure (my internet was more reliable in Poland), and a generally poor social service net all point to corruption at higher levels, with far-reaching impacts. Quality of life here is very high (that will happen when you have 250+ years of uninterrupted industrialization, safe from foreign powers), but corruption is actually higher than most people think. Sorry for the text block.
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  2. ThatOne Not sure about Brazil (have you seen the favelas?) but as for China and Russia, well.. China has been, for the last 2,000 years, an agriculturally-focused society (yes, there were emperors, but their authority was directly tied to the success of harvest). It's not hard to find food in China, whenever you end up. You'd have to try not to find a farmer's market. Russia, on the other hand, does in fact have hungry. Especially in Dagestan. I'd also like to mention (even though I despise whataboutism) that the U.S. has people go hungry too. Not saying "take that," just that corruption doesn't always mean stealing food. It's usually just nepotism and skimming off the top. The Soviet days of "collecting" are long over. We're just about the same as everyone else.
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