Its a bit like saying why would anyone want to host a huge dinner party.
Except that etiquette would dictate that the individual host foot the bill for a huge dinner party, whereas the taxpayers foot the bill for the Olympics.
Why Would Anyone Want To Host The Olympics?
31–40 of 58 posts
Re: Why Would Anyone Want To Host The Olympics?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
The transformation of East London which I believe to have been the main reason for choosing to host the Olympics in London, has been fairly spectacular. The Stratford area where the Olympic park was built, used to be a wasteland. Although I don't know this, I conjecture that the Olympics were used as a mechanism to force through a substantial number of planning permissions that would not have been granted otherwise.
Visually, it's changed - sure. There's a nice big stadium there that can be used every so often. It doesn't look as bad as it once did. It's changed very little of the outside area as far as I can tell though. Stratford was recently named as the countries worst crime hotspot[0]. According to the FT, "the bounce" has failed to materialise [1]. I would not recommend a walk around the outskirts of the Olympic stadium fo…
It's rough, but not that bad - I live locally (well in the even 'rougher' Forest Gate) and in the 15 years I've been in the area I've never personally had or seen any trouble - the kids who might look scary are well brought up - there isn't the crippling poverty (or as in other parts of London, poverty next to excessive wealth) that blights other parts.
Much of the crime is theft, rather than violent crime that south London sees - the postcode mentioned in the link above is the postcode of two shopping centres and transport interchange - the places you would expect to see high pick pocketing and shoplifting, which is what the majority crime mentioned in the report is.
I think the adjacent areas have changed, Leyton and Leytonstone are both far nicer - and in the last years have had new interesting pubs, cafes and shops open up.
Would this have happened anyway? Maybe - but most people I talk to are pretty happy with the changes the area has seen.
I'm still a little sad the plan to open Google offices in the Olympic park was shelved - that would have brought in a whole heap of jobs and new people to the area.
Re: Why Would Anyone Want To Host The Olympics?
#33Also for Turkey, It means government gets an excuse for building landmarks to north Istanbul. Expanding city and continue benefiting from a never-ending real estate gold rush in Istanbul. Both bidding of big projects and real estate benefits will go to "friends" of government.
Also they will use this excuse for removing poor people, and destroying houses that have much higher real estate value than their residents.
Re: Why Would Anyone Want To Host The Olympics?
#34I think there's an important psychological dimension that's often missed from these calculations, particularly for countries that have a chip on their shoulder. It's a way for the entire world to be focused on something that you're doing well (hopefully) for a few weeks. Before the Beijing olympics many Chinese would ask you how you liked China, and when you replied, "yes" they would say China is "luo hou", which mea…
maybe there aren't many advantages for a city like Tokyo or London
For a country that has endured the world's only recent nuclear disaster and has experienced massive economic stagnation for quite some time, I imagine that the Olympics could present a similar opportunity for building pride and galvanizing the country. Will the investment pay off? Who knows? China's investment isn't paying off in the financial sense that a lot of the Olympic buildings built have no real post-Olympic use. But if we are considering the pride factor alone here, then I imagine Tokyo will have a similar boost.
Re: Why Would Anyone Want To Host The Olympics?
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even though I'm very anti Erdoğan I would not be happy If we got the Olympics with or without Erdoğan. Our Economy is projected as a heaven and Turkey as in growth but on the contrary it's way too bad and currently sky diving. Putting one more economic burden as big as the Olympic games would be catastrophic. We are nearly paying taxes just to breath. (exaggeration yes but not too well off.) Getting the games would m…
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"As of today" Turkey is the "most vulnerable" country to a stop in capital inflow.This means Turkey is on a very fragile balance.Just google "capital-freeze index" and check out the economist.com graph.Maybe Erdogan controlled media is lying to you.
Re: Why Would Anyone Want To Host The Olympics?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Visually, it's changed - sure. There's a nice big stadium there that can be used every so often. It doesn't look as bad as it once did. It's changed very little of the outside area as far as I can tell though. Stratford was recently named as the countries worst crime hotspot[0]. According to the FT, "the bounce" has failed to materialise [1]. I would not recommend a walk around the outskirts of the Olympic stadium fo…
It's rough, but not that bad - I live locally (well in the even 'rougher' Forest Gate) and in the 15 years I've been in the area I've never personally had or seen any trouble - the kids who might look scary are well brought up - there isn't the crippling poverty (or as in other parts of London, poverty next to excessive wealth) that blights other parts. Much of the crime is theft, rather than violent crime that south…
>in the even 'rougher' Forest Gate
The setting of the movie 'Ill Manors'?
Re: Why Would Anyone Want To Host The Olympics?
#37Same reason you'd host any sort of expensive party. To look cool and feel cool. A lot of international politics make a lot more sense when you remember we're all in high school.
Actually, I was very skeptical about the London Olympics before the event. However, I thought the whole thing went splendidly and arguably did give the whole of the UK a bit of a lift in national morale just when we really needed it. Compared to other megaprojects that we seem to be happy to splurge taxpayers money on (e.g. silly aircraft carriers) it actually seemed pretty good value for money.
Pretty much. Even the most negative people had their cynicism utterly crushed.
Re: Why Would Anyone Want To Host The Olympics?
#38On top of my head: not all is lost. So if it costs $50 Billion, a lot of it is recouped via jobs, taxes, infrastructure that would have been built anyway, tourism etc. Some is lost but that's life. There's the "Made in Japan ...USA, China" brand and other geopolitical benefits as well. So money might be lost or it will be lost but so what? Greece has no business in doing them but Japan, China, USA, Russia and countri…
Although economically true these days, I found "Greece has no business in doing [the Olympics]" ironic.
I meant to say that bigger countries can absorb a loss, smaller ones like Greece might even go down (at least faster) because of Olympic losses.
Re: Why Would Anyone Want To Host The Olympics?
#39I think there's an important psychological dimension that's often missed from these calculations, particularly for countries that have a chip on their shoulder. It's a way for the entire world to be focused on something that you're doing well (hopefully) for a few weeks. Before the Beijing olympics many Chinese would ask you how you liked China, and when you replied, "yes" they would say China is "luo hou", which mea…
in 1999, the Beijing subway was almost nonexistent
Well, you did say "almost," and I'm aware that the subway system in Beijing has been considerably extended, but parts of the system were old in 1987 when I first rode it. I'm not at all sure that I agree that it "is more than worth the 40 billion that was spent" for peasants in a backward region of a still poor country to have the illusion that they live in a developed country.
Re: Why Would Anyone Want To Host The Olympics?
#40Only an economist could ask a question of the form "why would anyone want to do ?" I wonder how they manage to reproduce.
They've figured that out too. Behold, economist Bryan Caplan's book "Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids": http://www.amazon.com/Selfish-Reasons-Have-More-Kids/dp/0465...