Chapter 8 -Stabilization Policy

The Olympic Games look like a rich man's game

Summary:
The increasing spending in Olympic Games becomes a game for riches and increased government spending. Vanoc and the B.C. government further insist that the final Olympic tab will be around $1.8 billion, a figure that has been widely discredited. The security tab alone is $1 billion, with 13,000 personnel involved in the largest deployment in Canadian history. High-tech operations, including unmanned aerial vehicles and remote sensors, have led to the dubbing of 2010 as the "Surveillances Games" by sociologist David Lyon. On the other hand, the devastating reality is that Vancouver has experienced a 300-per-cent increase in homelessness since the Olympic bid, residents in the Downtown Eastside are being affected through aggressive police ticketing, Native communities are opposing Olympics-related development on their lands, and environmentalists are challenging the "Green" Games.

Connections:
Chapter 8 discusses the possible problems of large amounts of government borrowing. As mentioned in the article, “Since 2004, Vanoc and government officials have claimed that the Olympics will be on budget.” It was said to be around $1.8 billion. Unfortunately, the actually costs range turns out to be from $3 billion to $6 billion depending on which projects are included. As the size of the debt increases, there is more concern over the negative aspects of such a debt. Some of these aspects are increased inflation, higher interest rates, the burden that is passed on to future generations, possible income redistribution, and the consequences of externally held debt.

Reflection:
With all these criticisms, I still believe the Olympic Games will bring profits to our city. Yet, we are spending more money than we expected. On the other hand, extra spending on constructions and security systems create lots of job opportunities to many people. As long as people have jobs, they are likely to spend more instead of waiting in the line to get Unemployment Insurance. Also, since it’s recession, materials are cheaper than before. Therefore, in the long run, we are saving more. Moreover, as mentioned in the article, our government is spending more money on homelessness, which helps poors. Also, we all believe that Olympic will attract tourist around the world, which will eventually help our economic.