Olympic Misery
September 3, 2017 • Los Angeles
According to the LA Times, City officials have agreed to take responsibility for cost overruns associated with the 2028 Olympics. While most people seem to be on board with hosting the world spectacle yet again, there is an undercurrent of dissent. City government struggles to meet its existing obligations, and the vast majority of Angelenos aren’t wealthy people.
Who will the games benefit? Analysts seem to think the winners will be developers and large corporations, and losers will be low-wage workers. The city’s Olympic Coliseum, recently given away to USC in all but the deed to the land, is surrounded by some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. With any luck the impoverished locals will be able to rent out their homes and driveways during the spectacle and profit in some small way.
The Romans knew that ale and circuses were needed to keep the masses entertained enough to keep them from revolting against authority; the Olympic games, the planet’s premiere celebration of mindless nationalism, definitely fits in the “circuses” category.
