Statue of Liberty reopens today after $30 million interior renovation

Quote: Originally Posted by PoliticalNick

All the service cuts and a $17 trillion debt and they spend $30 million on a statue. No wonder America is sinking into financial oblivion.

Quote: Originally Posted by PoliticalNick

All the service cuts and a $17 trillion debt and they spend $30 million on a statue. No wonder America is sinking into financial oblivion.

Quote: Originally Posted by petros

She used to carry a purse.....

Quote: Originally Posted by petros

She used to carry a purse.....

Quote: Originally Posted by PoliticalNick

All the service cuts and a $17 trillion debt and they spend $30 million on a statue. No wonder America is sinking into financial oblivion.

Quote: Originally Posted by PoliticalNick

All the service cuts and a $17 trillion debt and they spend $30 million on a statue. No wonder America is sinking into financial oblivion.

Quote: Originally Posted by SLM

$30 million eh? Cut her some slack, the older you get the more paint you got slap on to be presentable.

Quote: Originally Posted by TenPenny

The best part is that many of the same people who worship at the feet of this statue, denigrate and insult the country that donated it.

Funny as hell to me.

Quote: Originally Posted by JLM

You're letting emotions overtake reason. It's like spending 30 cents when you are $1700 in debt. Is it not a major tourist attraction? Money spent on maintenance is seldom wasted.

Quote: Originally Posted by PoliticalNick

Actually I am letting common sense get the better of me.

Would you spend $3000 on a new engine for your truck when it didn't really need it...

The mostly federally funded renovation to the 126-year-old Statue of Liberty includes fire-safety and ventilation improvements, better bathrooms, a third elevator and a remodeled staircase with 39 extra steps to make it easier to climb from pedestal to crown.

And, for the first time ever, there is wheelchair access to the top of the pedestal.

With the structural improvements, 26,000 more visitors will be able to visit the crown every year. Previously, only 240 people per day could visit; now 315 can.

... and you were $1,700,000 in the hole already with no foreseeable way to even start paying it back?

Quote: Originally Posted by CDNBear

Besides the necessities like fire safety and ventilation, the other upgrades are sound tourist attracting reno's.

Depends on whether or not I had a stake in the autoshop it was being repaired at.

Investment in infrastructure is always good.

For someone who bemoans the war machine, you sure do like to bash the better alternative, infrastructure investment.

Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise,[1] or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function.[2] It can be generally defined as the set of interconnected structural elements that provide framework supporting an entire structure of development. It is an important term for judging a country or region's development.
The term typically refers to the technical structures that support a society, such as roads,bridges, water supply, sewers, electrical grids, telecommunications, and so forth, and can be defined as "the physical components of interrelated systems providing commodities and services essential to enable, sustain, or enhance societal living conditions."[3]

Quote: Originally Posted by PoliticalNick

Sorry, no statues or tourist attractions in this definition.

Quote: Originally Posted by TenPenny

Actually, they do, if the 'enterprise' in question is tourism business.

Quote: Originally Posted by PoliticalNick

You must have missed the words 'necessary for an economy to function'. Somehow I think the economy would function just fine if the statue/tourist trap wasn't fixed or wasn't even there at all.

Quote: Originally Posted by PoliticalNick

You must have missed the words 'necessary for an economy to function'. Somehow I think the economy would function just fine if the statue/tourist trap wasn't fixed or wasn't even there at all.

Quote: Originally Posted by JLM

I think you're are embarking on a "slippery slope". Things like parks and museums could be argued that they are not necessary for the economy to function. What would be next? The Smithsonian Institute? Yellowstone Park? Alcatraz?

Quote: Originally Posted by PoliticalNick

I am not saying there is no good in these things. What I am saying is dropping $30 mil on a statue when your so f*cking broke you can't buy a glass of water from a river is stupid.

Think of all the underfunded essential services and whether $30 million would help one of them. Drop it on education or build a couple of rural firehalls or fund a few dozen doctors or some medical equipment somewhere.

People seem to still be blind to just how f*cking insanely in debt the western world is and how our so-called leaders keep taking us further down the hole.

This is just another example of the citizens giving the politicians a free pass with our money when we should be kicking their asses out of office.

2010
Total visitor spending from New York City tourism in 2010: $31.5 billion
Total wages generated by New York City tourism in 2010: $17.3 billion
Total NYC jobs supported by visitor spending in 2010: 310,156
Total taxes generated by visitor spending in 2010: $8.1 billion
Each New York City household benefited by an average of $1,350 in tax savings as a result of travel and tourism

Quote: Originally Posted by PoliticalNick

It doesn't say if the fire & ventilation is required or not. I would imagine it meets existing fire codes or it would be shut down.

I could actually see you spending $3000 on something you didn't need to get a $3 dividend at the end of the year.

2010
Total visitor spending from New York City tourism in 2010: $31.5 billion
Total wages generated by New York City tourism in 2010: $17.3 billion
Total NYC jobs supported by visitor spending in 2010: 310,156
Total taxes generated by visitor spending in 2010: $8.1 billion
Each New York City household benefited by an average of $1,350 in tax savings as a result of travel and tourism

Roads are infratructure. So are rails, power grids, communication lines and even some necessary govt buildings. A statue is not!

If it was infrastructure I could understand but it is a statue.

Infrastructure - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sorry, no statues or tourist attractions in this definition.

Quote: Originally Posted by slm

even when there is a huge deficit there can still be sense in spending money to make money.

nyc statistics / nycgo.com

if these numbers are even remotely accurate, billions of dollars of revenue is generated each year from tourism in nyc, of which the statue of liberty is prime destination and it represents less than 10% of one years revenue. But this investment, and it is an investment, will benefit over many, many years.

Yes there is woefully underfunded essential services, of that there is no doubt. But these services will never receive the funding they need if the area is not self-sustaining with a vibrant local economy, of which tourism is a large part of.

So i vehemently disagree that this is an example of politicians/bureaucrats throwing away our (or more specifically us citizens) tax dollars. There are plenty of examples of that occurring, i won't argue that, but this is not one of them.

Quote: Originally Posted by karrie

I've never been to this one, but I have seen the one in Paris, which made Ten Penny's observation all the more apt.