Given the current economic climate, does anyone else think that holding the Olympics in 2012 is a complete waste of money, or will it bring a much needed boost to our economy?

On a separate note I can’t get to grips with the Chancellors reasoning…….if were told that hard times are ahead, the obvious thing as individuals is to save and prepare….not spend ??

Or am I just being thick?

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No and Yes
No
Yes

Couldn't agree more Rob.

The cost of holding the olympic games has had a serious financial effect on a lot of countries in the past and thats without the current climate

Dan

1. Depends on how things are in 2012. But you may as well say lets spend nothing on anything

2. Not necessarily. If nobody spends anything then the economy is dead anyway.

3. Nope, just being provocative!

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even before the current economic crisis i did not think that we could afford to hold the olympic games in this country, we are too busy giving our money away to other schemes abroad, and the cash is not reaching the needy but lining the pockets of thieves.
billy.

This probably wants moving to "viewpoint".

So many questions and methods have arisen from the credit crunch. Labour think we should spend our way out. Tories think we should cut-back to stability.

As with most things in life, you have to spend money to make money and the Olympics is a good example of that. Having said that, the reason we are in this mess is because too much spending was done on all levels. Banks are guilty and the regular civilian is guilty of spending that which did not belong to them.

I work in the house building industry and the shortage of "wanted" properties fuelled the market to excessive prices. We sadly have the councils to blame for this and ultimately the government who controls planning laws. Builders have for several years been forced and pushed into building in places people do not want to live and with excessive units (houses) per acre. Crammed is an understatement!

You often here about this figure that the country is short of property by 1 million units. It is not exactly true - every builder in the country has a porfolio of unwanted but built houses. Sometimes its just a few that are hard to sell ... sometimes it is entire developments; the builders have one choice - build where you are told or don't build at all. This is what drives the insane house prices and has been a major factor in the current economic situation.

You may be of the opinion that house builders can charge what they like and have created this mess themselves; sadly the price of the land on which the houses are built dictates that to them. House prices need to come down but it can't be done over night nor over a year or we risk destroying the market completely.

We need to get back to the days where your only debt was your house, it wasn't 5 x your salary and you had money left over at the end of the month. Our lifestyles of cars and distant holidays all on tick; have grown beyond the speed of our economy. I have to say I'm with the Tories, on this particular one, we should not try to bluff our way out of this by spending even more. Old school economising is the way forward in my opinion.

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If managed correctly the olympics could be a huge benefit to the economy. JM Keynes argued that a government can spend its way out of recession as it stimulates the economy. The US did it during the great depression and commissioned public works schemes to utilise the excess supply in the labour market.

Also, if you need to invest in infrastructure (and Britain has massively underinvested over the last 40 years) it is the cheapest time to do it.

The government could do it with the Olympics and provide work for the decimated construction industry.

Its a theory...whether the government do it properly and whether we can pay back the required national debt is another matter.

Rob,

The mindset of this generation is to borrow, borrow, borrow. Thats what got us into this mess. Mr granny always used to say, if you want something bad enough, save up and buy it. Who does that anymore? Not even kids.

London Olympics is a complete waste of money in my opinion, only time will tell just how much of a waste it turns out to be.


OO

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Sorry about this, but I've no persuasion to any political party...I just vote for the one that i consider best for me at the time.....

I understand that if all spending (government & private ) were stopped then that would make matters worse as the economy would implode.

But my reasoning is that we as a country should cut back on what I would call non essential expendature, which I think the olympics are....unless however the end result is that they generate more money for the country than was initially invested, ie tourism, foreign investment etc....

where the last 2 olympics profitable for the host countries, or is it still to soon to tell.

As an individual I'm goint to try my best to save over the next 2 years and the last thing I intend to do is live beyond my means, just to kick start the economy

I think by adopting the keep spending stance it's potentially making matters worse, and putting off the inevitable

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To answer the first poster NO, Yes, No, Yes

And as part of the decimated construction industry Texxa is dead right

Andy