Editorial “A last, best chance to host the Olympics?” continues:
“Last week, the city of Philadelphia withdrew its bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games. Philadelphia had been one of 35 cities the U.S. Olympic Committee invited to compete…
“Yes, the cost would have been enormous and the logistics would have been complicated. But an event of this magnitude would have had a significant economic impact on the state and the Mid-Atlantic region.”
WATCHDOG: What were the editors smoking? THERE IS NO PUBLIC MONEY ANY MORE! The cities are fending off bankruptcy.
As a nation, we have spent it all on a ruinous health care system that cost an additional 8% of Gross National Product each year over what better systems in the other advanced nations cost.
And we are spending 2% more than otherwise would be necessary for national defense due to fruitless and cruel wars.
Our country has evolved over 75 years from the liberal democracy of Franklin D. Roosevelt , Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jack Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and even Ronald Reagan to the plutocracy of today, special business interests being enriched and the general public be damned. And it will stay that way until there is a Constitutional amendment to control the amounts of political contributions.
From here on in the Olympics will need to be held either in Asia were vigorous economies can fund them, in the Mid-East where oil money can pay for them, or perhaps in South America where Brazil or Argentina might spend the money as a matter of national prestige. Or they will need to be cut back in scope and cost.
Perhaps the first step towards doing that is to re-dedicate ourselves to being a democracy, a country for the betterment of all of its people, not just the ½ of 1%.
