- cross-posted to:
- hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se
- cross-posted to:
- hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se
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The headline should say removing his artwork costs that much. The work itself was provided for literally 0p.
And was worth millions.
And in one case removing some art to be preserved in an art gallery was expensive. You can’t blame both overreactions on Banksy.
You know that is nearly nothing compared to anything with cars
The work came for free, courtesy of the artist.
The cleaning fee of £150k comes from - I mean wtf is that price even? That’s just absolutely bonkers on so many levels. Even if it requires some specialist work, this is just insane.
Sub contracting, I’d risk.
You can’t just pick a municipality workers team, hand them a power washer and tell them they need to clean this or that.
You need an outsourcer. A specialist. Prefereably one that can either be blamed for poor work/damage to the structure (which probably was pre-existing) or can return some incentives.
Sure, but still that’s just a price tag that can’t easily be validated - even with a subcontractor (and, frankly, municipalities should have this in their ranks - also for removing graffiti and such).
There’s a massive issue of government’s wasteful spending, local and national. This is one of those things. More generally, as a society that we have price tags like this is just insane. At the same time, basic services can’t be funded.
It just doesn’t add up, even if you agree with the removal.
Let me give a slightly more informed insight.
As a worker for state own company.
Nobody in the ranks with responsability actually wants to shoulder it. This leads to very long, dry and hard to read reports to be writen. Of these, only the summary will ever be read, if so, ever.
The argument for outsourcing is that such companies provide specialized services, difficult to maintain in house or unjustifiable regarding equipment and machinery purchases.
This is all smoke and mirrors. Having capable personnel with more resources is a bonus, not a hindrance, ever. Besides it is cheaper. But such personnel requires field supervision and supervisors willing to take responsability for delays, damage, errors, etc. And nobody wants that.
Which opens the field for such outsourcers, often created by former employees of these state organizations. Contracts can be written with ironclad clauses that almost, but not quite, exempt contractors of responsabilities, leaving the state - all of us! - to take the brunt.
This isn’t criminal. Just demonstrates how lazyness works.
I understand all that, I just fundamentally disagree with it.
To be clear, I am not saying you’re wrong but I mean that this is just such irresponsible governing. It’s laziness indeed, it’s fear to take responsibility, it’s whatever else. What it isn’t is taking charge as leaders and feeling any kind of responsibility or accountability. This is something that could be done at a 10th of that amount if not less so.
I’ve worked a lot with governments myself in the past and the incredible wasteful spending just has me livid. From renting out entire castles to hold meetings to cleaning up walls, while also hollowing out just about all social services.
It’s just - it wasn’t always like this and I understand the politics behind but I will never understand it from a human point of view. It’s utter insanity and almost no one is willing to change it.
My biggest concern with your entire reply lies on a single word: leaders.
The obcession with leaders is the result of our current collective downfall. We need everyone to realize they have agency. That they can interfere with what they consider or understand as wrong.
They are supposed to, in a democracy. Demand responsability. Ask for better.
Asking “why” is not a poor question.
We have agency when we unite and the good thing is that people all over the world are quite done with most of our … leaders. The difficulty is that we’re not united in which way to go.
I think that’s our biggest challenge right now, and all forces are coming out to prevent people being organised and standing together. If we can fix that, and some good stuff is happening, the future is ours. My worry is if we can get there soon enough, and whether or not we can minimise the harm in the meantime.
Stop for a moment, remember the most instant reaction you get from someone when the notion of organizing or supporting an organizatio is mentioned.
I’m going to risk with a fair degree of confidence that most people instantly distrust the notion.
There has been a worldwide campaign to smother colective movements, people’s organizations and similar group iniciatives for decades.
By default, no group is seen as trusworthy. There is always a notion of a hidden agenda. While when you get a head figure - a leader, to use your word of choice - you can see support.
I call this the messianic complex. People want to be saved, not save themselves, because they’ve been forced into a mentality of distrust and isolation.
I remember when the BBC use to be an unimpeachable source of news.
It has fallen so far.
BBC, New York Times. These were seen as highest quality news! How faar the mighty have fallen. Now its only germans Tagesschau and that one also cracks sometimes to align with some weird agenda even when they’re independent
Is there any way to buy (prints of) his art without the money going to… Ya know… Someone with a fancy printer and zero morals? Like an official way? Or someone selling copies with profits (provably) going to charity or whatever?
I’d bring/send a high quality image to your local print shop to get a quote.
Just an idea.
Worth every penny of the 2.1p it personally cost me in extra tax.
It could have been a nice tourist attraction 🤷
I have no idea how they managed to get to those costs.
These two gentlemen and their colleagues standing around 24/7 likely play a big part.
Why this should be necessary is another question.
It doesn’t have to
Weird headline
So what, did this cost millions?
Oh i love the british humor <3
