Opinion: Chicago 2016

07/31/2013 - 09h03

Fantastic the cover of the "Chicago Sun-Times" last Wednesday featuring a picture of violent protests in Rio de Janeiro with the headline "We lost for this?", a reference to the defeat the windy city had when competing for the 2016 Olympics.

Considering the great sense of humor of the American newspaper, I propose we give back to Chicago the right to host the event. I believe there is still time for this and everyone would win.

The most obvious reason against the Olympics in Rio is the high costs of operation. There are questions regarding the priority of investing in this type of competition and it is also almost certain that expenses will occur in a somewhat undemocratic way, with budget investments lacking transparency and the inseparable suspicions of favoritism.

My point, however, is that even if costs would in fact follow a model of full disclosure and total administrative efficiency, even then, the Olympics is something that governments should keep a certain distance. The central issue is that this type of expenditure means income concentration. It is true that contractors, hotels and restaurants owners, taxi drivers and commerce in general can indeed benefit from the investment. If this adventure creates a permanent legacy in infrastructure (which is far from certain), Rio can also gain something.

The problem is that, to generate these opportunities, we have to spend the taxpayer money. It does not seem very fair to the citizen paying taxes in Acre to subsidize (and in conditions far from ideal) something that will be good, at most, for some people in Rio.

The World Cup, Olympics and other major international events are welcome provided they are financed with private money. Since that is not possible, we prefer to appeal to the old law of loss socialization and profit privatization.

Translated by SIMONE PALMA

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	Reprodução/Chicagosuntimes.com
	Fantastic the cover of the "Chicago Sun-Times" last Wednesday featuring a picture of violent protests in Rio de Janeiro with the headline "We lost for this?", a reference to the defeat the wind city had when competing for the 2016 Olympics.