KCee It has surprised me that people are so upset that a golfer would play for the Saudis yet don't seem to mind we sell them weapons. A golfer can't make millions off of them, but it's ok for US companies? Some people are upset about both I'm sure, but it is interesting what we focus on. I get it, but I'm not sure that NOT dealing with them at all is the answer.
If we just close off to countries with governments we don't like (China, Saudis, etc) do we think they'll become better? I don't think we can starve them into change. I think it may be better to slowly embrace them. People in these other countries start to see what the USA is about and will likely want that for themselves and start to force changes in their countries. Of course we don't want them emigrating here lol.
You make good points. And don't want to go down another rabbit hole as we've done before on this topic. But there is a difference between working with the Saudis opposed to working directly for the Saudis, for me anyway.
Geopolitics is one thing. And that can be messy and ugly. Countries like ours make strategic alliances based on all kinds of things, one being geographical for political advantage in a particular region of the world.
That's an example of Governments that work with other countries. On the flip side there's individuals and companies that work for a country.
And then there's multinational corporations which do business and have facilities in several different countries. That would include a lot of companies today.
And then you have individuals who work directly for a country. That would be the LIV players. And the country they work directly for has human rights issues that we as a country frown upon.
Owning a stock in a company that invests in countries that have human rights issues or working for a company that has facilities in countries with bad human rights issues is extremely convoluted.
But LIV was cut and dry. Individuals working directly for Saudi Arabia (PIF invests on behalf of Saudi Arabia and is controlled by MBS who is the ruler of Saudi Arabia).
And now we have a U.S. corporation (the PGA Tour) that will essentially be funded by PIF (Saudi Arabia). The Saudi government bought the PGA Tour.
So it's very easy for people to nitpick and want people to be pure and consistent in their beliefs and throw out whataboutisms etc. to show inconsistency regarding these issues.
But we're all imperfect human beings and we're all wired differently and see things thru our own lenses. As Rory said yesterday he feels like he was a sacrificial lamb.
And those of us who do have political beliefs and saw LIV as antithetical to those beliefs have been blindsided. So for some of us it's going to take time to reconcile all that’s transpired the last couple of days.
