Basking in the defeat of the latest example of crony capitalism (The stadium in Shockoe Bottom) I read this at Deadspin (A great sports place I do not read often enough. I even asked if they were interested in me to write for them. No word; their loss.
Mine, too. Deadspin is a good edgy sports news site. Today, they showed that the Europeans are in some ways smarter than we are!
Yesterday, Krakow, Poland, officially withdrew its bid for the games, a day after a citywide referendum where 70 percent of voters came out against hosting the Olympics. “Krakow is closing its efforts to be the host of the 2022 Winter Games due to the low support for the idea among the residents,” said mayor Jacek Majchrowski.
In January, another of the six original finalists pulled out, when Stockholm, Sweden‘s ruling political party declined to fund the games. They cited the pointlessness of paying hundreds of millions for facilities that would be used for two weeks and then rarely again, a story common to almost all Olympic hosts. “Arranging a Winter Olympics would mean a big investment in new sports facilities, for example for the bobsleigh and luge,” the Moderate party said in a statement. “There isn’t any need for that type of that kind of facility after an Olympics.”
In November, voters in Munich, Germany, rejected a proposed Olympic bid. “The vote is not a signal against the sport,” said one lawmaker, “but against the non-transparency and the greed for profit of the IOC.”
Last March, a joint bid from Davos/St. Moritz, Switzerland, fell apart after being rejected by a public referendum.
Four examples of the proper response to crony capitalism and profligate spending. (By the way, the Moderate Party is not. It’s a pro-EU Tweedledee party!)
I found the best response to the whole thing this comment at the end of the Deadspin post by snoop-a-loop:
About Elwood Sanders
Elwood "Sandy" Sanders is a Hanover attorney who is an Appellate Procedure Consultant for Lantagne Legal Printing and has written ten scholarly legal articles. Sandy was also Virginia's first Appellate Defender and also helped bring curling in VA! (None of these titles imply any endorsement of Sanders’ views)
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