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Honestly, I feel that the money that they're pouring into the olympics could be much better spend elsewhere. But being a business major, I also know that this money literally wouldn't exist for social programs.
It's the same rationalization as most people make on an annual basis. A lot of people have personal debt, which is costing them money. However, come boxing day, a great many people would rather buy a big-screen TV than pay down $600-1200 of personal debt. Why? Because they feel the value of what they are purchasing (both in terms of actual value and long-term "showoff" value) is better than the amount of money they can pay their debt down.
This is basically what's happening with the Olympics. Yes, I agree the retards are getting sidelined (that's a separate issue that has to do with the downsizing of Riverview in the 70s and 80s...yay de-institutionalization policies that happened before I was born!) and that addicts and low-income people are getting shafted. At the same time, the money that they want wasn't coming to them before the olympics. I admit, the olympics were supposed to bring more money to low-income people in the form of below-market housing, but the economic collapse in the US kind of fucked that idea.
What's here is here, and disruptive protesting will only result in a reduced economic benefit post-games. There was a protest group...I can't even remember their name right now, but they did everything they could to just randomly disrupt and fuck shit up. They even invaded an MLA's office and trashed it just to show how far they'd go. Yet all they did was drive up the costs of securing EVERYTHING by making VANOC pay for extra cops and private security to protect meetings and presentations.
I am by no means saying that the Olympics are the best way to spend $6b. But it's here, and there's nothing we can do about it. Should we ignore the issues? Fuck no. Should we enjoy the ride? Fuck yes.
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