To think there are better things to donate €100m to than rebuilding Notre Dame?

[Bearbehind]

I know no one has to donate anything but 2 French billionaires have reportedly donated €100m and €200m respectively towards rebuilding Notre Dame.

The Catholic Church is not exactly short of money.

It just doesn’t really sit right with me spending all that money on a building when it could be used for so many other things

@TaMereAPoilDevantPrisu

.....They still do though

It's such another sign that we live in a world where 'things' are valued more than human life.

Just as it should be. Ars longa vita brevis innit.

Give money to people and they just spend it on 'things' anyway. Better one Notre Dame than 300 bazillion sets of Asda Easter Bunny ears.

Well £100million could buy you 15 loads of wasted Brexit planning. For context. Or 10 DUP votes ...

Ars longa vita brevis innit.

I agree. History, art and other forms of culture are the only things separating us from self-replicating shit machines. What would be the point of "valueing human life", if it didn't include "things"?

Yabu. If i had a spare 100 million id donate. glad someone going to rebuild it

Ars longa vita brevis

Tell that to the guy that bought the Banksy ...

That was quick, to insert a Brexit quip so very early in the thread!

£100m? Same as 2.5 weeks of U.K. taxpayers' contributions to the EU budget.

I applaud the sentiment behind "£100million could buy you 15 loads of wasted Brexit planning. For context. Or 10 DUP votes", but would like to point out that that only buys you ONE DUP vote. Arlene and her merry band are certainly not cheap dates.

Good grief. I presume the OP spends no money on anything that isn't an absolute essential and gives the rest away to worthy causes.

It would be good if the next round of elections brought detailed spending plans - down to the how and the what of funding into public services and so on.

I think it matters what gets paid for as is indicated by the OP. We ought to know precisely what and who gets public money and perhaps why. Academy chains, community groups, grievance farmers and so on, for example. Just a thought.

Well op given you have such strong views, i assume you'll be publishing a full lost of yoir assets amd imcome accompanied by an exhaustive account of your charitable and philanthropic donations so everyone here can decide whether they are the most worthy causes possible?

Thought not.

Give us bread but give us roses

Rich people have been doing this forever. I'm glad the Medici paid for Brunelleschi to design the Basilica in Florence. I'm sure there were better things to spend their money on, plague victims and so on. But I love Florence and I'm glad the self-serving narcissists funded the dome. And that was almost exactly 600 years ago!

Really, does it not bother people that two single private individuals are able to conjure up three hundred million euros overnight? Why the fuck aren't we taxing them more and spending that on essential stuff like dialysis machines and housing the homeless?

Doesn't France have that millionaires tax?

TaMereAPoilDevantPrisu

Nope doesn’t bother me. I am sure they pay a fair amount of tax. If you increase tax too much then you take away the incentive to succeed.

Macron got rid of it.

Yeah right I'm suuure the multibillionaires are paying their fair whack of tax and not at all using their proximity to the centres of power to obtain favourable tax legislation.

I can't judge. I give very little to charities outside of animal ones. Some people think that this is getting my priorities wrong. I drive a niceish car but never donate to a homeless charity.

Construction started on Notre Dame in 1160. 859 years ago. Generations of artisans devoted their lives to building this incredible structure, and its construction bolstered the economy for centuries. It's a prime example of that amazing medieval invention, the flying buttress. It's a symbol for many, it houses ancient treasures, its bells are a part of Parisian life, it's ingrained on many people's hearts.

It's a testament of human endeavour, skill, long-sightedness and faith, and it is worth preserving to remind us that we are not just animals that walk and talk. We build things, we create breathtaking beauty and majesty to last the ages. All the great religious buildings remind us of this, and that's me speaking as an atheist.

The arts and culture are absolutely worth preserving because they tell us who and why we are. Other causes are also extremely worthy, but that does not make this one less so.

TaMereAPoilDevantPrisu

I am sure they do get tax brakes in return for opening factories and creating jobs etc. our town is offering 0% tax for 3 years to new business employing more than 30 people.

When I first went around ND, in 1990, the guide was amazing. He managed to roll 4 or 5 languages into one sentence, yet remain totally comprehensible. He'd start in English, a few words in French, then Italian, German and Spanish. I'd never heard it before (well, not deliberately) and I've never heard it since.

Ah OP virtue-signalling at its finest
Two biscuits for you; one is clearly not enough

It's such another sign that we live in a world where 'things' are valued more than human life.

The “value” of human life is overrated. We should be sacrificing ourselves to progress the world forward just as those did in originally building Notre Dame. Legacy is everything.

You should be on the stage, Buster.

After going to the Vatican I would not give the Catholic Church a single penny. They are absolutely rolling in it. It’s abhorrent.

People can choose to do as they wish with their own money. Some people leave their entire estate to a donkey sanctuary and that’s their choice. May seem stupid to some but it’s not your money so 🤷🏻‍♀️.