Brazil Olympics

[Bazile]

Should Brazil be spending 12 Billion pounds hosting such an event like the olympic games ; when it has it's rivers flowing with sewage , amongst other things

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/04/rio-olympics-2016-economists-question-wisdom-of-hosting-olympics.html

[Hypognosis]

@Bazile (a pity you're not from Brazile, as we could have a pun time with that)

In a way, by inviting in the whole world, for a party, maybe it will serve to shame the elites, in Brazil, to put some infrastructure in place to clean up that muck.

But, as we know, it's hardly a profitable business sector and the elites won't see/smell the benefit as they must already be residing in unpolluted areas. A sense of public duty and making life better for the less well off is usually lacking in purely capitalist economies so perhaps the Olympic spirit will show them the way?

[vetuste_ennemi]

A "purely capitalist" economy neing what, Hypo?

[seekeerz]

Totally agree with jourdains post ....take it back to Greece and the participating nations fund the bill...would sort out quite a few problems especially for the Greek economy and all the millions spent on bribing IOC officials would go as well.....food for thought anyway.

[Hypognosis]

@vetuste_ennemi

//A "purely capitalist" economy neing what, Hypo? //

Anything with zero sense of responsibility to the general public. *

Fovela dwellers can't afford a proper house, let alone club together to build a sewage works.

Private water companies would regard sewage treatment as a dent to their profit margin if they were not either held to account by government authorities or placed in direct competition with other water companies, who could gain bragging rights by providing a higher quality product at the tap and simultaneously keeping the sewage outfall as clean as possible.


* I nearly said "Libertarian" but that's a whole other thread. ;-)