Circuses, but Less Bread 1532


The London Olympics are already achieving the number one aim of the politicians who brought them here, which is making our politicians feel very important indeed.

The media is quite frenetic in its efforts to make us all believe we should be terrifically proud of the fact we are hosting the Olympics, as though there were something unique in this achievement. If we can’t competently do something that Greece, Spain and China have done in recent years, that would be remarkable. Of course the Games will be on the whole well delivered, sufficient for the media and politicians to declare it an ecstatic success. Some of the sporting moments will be sublime, as ever.

But did it have to be in London? We won’t know the total cost of the Games for months, but it will cost the taxpayer at least £9 billion and I suspect a lot more. I also suspect the GDP figures will, in the event, show that the massive net fall in visitor numbers has hurt the already shrinking economy further.

But to take the most optimistic figure, holding the Olympics in London has cost every person in the country an average of £150 per head in extra taxes. That is £600 for a family of four. Actually it is in the end going to be well over £2,000, as of course the money has been borrowed on the never never, and taxpayers are going to be paying it off their whole lives, along with the sum ten times higher they are already paying direct into the pockets of the bankers through their taxes.

The very rich, of course, don’t pay much tax, so they are not worried.

But to take just the figure of £600 extra taxes for a family of four, the lowest possible amount, and not including the interest. Is having the Olympics here really worth paying out £600 for? If Tony Blair had approached the head of the family and said “We are going to have the Olympics in London, but it’s going to cost you £600, would the answer have been from most ordinary people: “Yes, great idea, this is that important to us”?

People are not disconcerted because they don’t see that they have to pay. There is no special Olympics tax, and they pay their taxes in a variety of ways, and individuals are not the sole source of taxation. But this is nonetheless real money taken from the people in pursuit of the hubris of politicians.

I love sport. I hate the corruption of the International Olympic Committee, Fifa and the rest; I hate the vicious corporatism and militarisation of our capital and absurd elitism of the transport lanes; the sport itself I love. But with the economy contracting, and the NHS being farmed out for profit, is it really worth £600 for a family – and many families are really struggling in a heartbreaking way – is it worth the money to have the Olympics here rather than in Paris?

Of course it isn’t. I think many of us will feel an extra pleasure watching the Opening ceremony because it is British. Patriotic pride will surge. It is not wrong to enjoy the spectacle tonight on TV. The corporate well connected and ruling classes will enjoy it in the stadium.

But after you have watched it on TV, ask yourself this question. How much more did you enjoy it than enjoy watching the Beijing ceremony, and was that margin of extra enjoyment something that everybody in the room would have paid out £150 for?

Because they just did.


Allowed HTML - you can use: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

1,532 thoughts on “Circuses, but Less Bread

1 11 12 13 14 15 52
  • Uzbek in the UK

    Clark
    .
    I am with you here.
    .
    We are already (for the last 15 years at least) living in the world of global economy. Most of the goods we (in the UK) use on daily basis come from overseas, including groceries. Since collapse of USSR western corporations have spread around the world where there were no longer any barriers for their expansion. Ideology that conflicted them collapsed and governments around the world (especially in former USSR) stood in queue to get investments and wisdom of western corporations.
    .
    This was not altogether bad. Looking at globalisation open-minded one can see how billions (literally) were lifted out of poverty in places like China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, North Africa, South America.
    .
    Yes, there is a LOT more to be done, but by placing national barriers and thus restricting movement of capital, labour and goods will NOT be beneficial for all parties. Both developing world and developed world will lose in this, but poorer of course loose more. It will lead to hike of commodities prices in the West which currently benefits from imports of cheap commodities from developing world, it will lead to significant (some would say catastrophic) reduction of economic activities in developing countries. Rising unemployment in developing world will plunge billions back to poverty and will resonate in upcoming political instability that will in time effect security of developed world too.
    .
    If anything WWII was a clear example that rising nationalism could take ugly forms and that restriction of internal markets and economic expansion at the same time is a recipe for disaster.
    .
    What needs to be done is that (as Clark suggested) economic globalisation needs to be shadowed by global governance. There must be institutions in place that would place checks on behaviour of multinational corporations all over the world. There must be certain rules that are followed by those corporations all over the world, irrespective of their geographic location. Taxation must also be a matter for global government to work in collaboration with national government in order to reduce money laundering.
    .
    But so far prospects of this is very gloomy. The only example of successful (not even global but) regional governance that followed economic integration was EU. And instead of being example from where other (this time) global institutions could emerge it is serving as example of that close economic integration could lead to a disaster in the absence of government that is capable of placing checks on all units that are integrated.

  • technicolour

    Nuid: London, at the moment?

    CheebaCow: yes, but the issue isn’t even being discussed. It’s not just corporate personhood, though that too, but corporate fiduciary duty, which sews the boards in to making as much money for their shareholders as possible and devil take the environmental/social consequences.It would be better for everyone, including the directors, if that went.

    On the other hand, its very hard to see how to address the cutthroat competition between, say, the supermarkets, which results in a social and environmental drive to the bottom, taking any pretence of animal welfare with it. Christie Moore has a great futuristic song about walking through a supermarket’s empty ruins, but me I think it would be better to somehow use the infrastructure rather than destroy it. Then again since the infrastructure itself is vast, and therefore vastly environmentally destructive, maybe not.

  • nuid

    “Nuid: London, at the moment?”
    .
    No, Tech, I meant where did Mary post that? I didn’t see it.

  • technicolour

    No, was answering my own question! Was thanking Mary for mentioning one of the victims of war; currently homeless in her area.

    ps David Cameron tweet oddly moving, thanks

  • nuid

    “There must be institutions in place that would place checks on behaviour of multinational corporations all over the world.” — Uzbek
    .
    You mean like the UN places “checks” on behaviour of countries/states? THAT’s going well! And when the EU proposed taxing financial transactions, Cameron insisted on keeping London out of it. So THAT’s also going well. And since the arrival of super PACs in the USA, whereby donations to political candidates can by made anonymously with no limit, neither party in the USA is going to put a stop to that either …

  • Uzbek in the UK

    Back to the Olympics
    .
    Friend of mine emailed me two fascinating photos yesterday. Before you get puzzled, these were not photos of games or athletes. These were photos of price board of Ibis Stratford hotel. Price for double room on Monday 140 quid per night. Price for double room yesterday (on Tuesday) 400 quid per night.
    .
    What an inflation. Almost 300%.
    .
    I bid that those figures are not going be to accounted by either of the posh boys in their economic output statistics.

  • nuid

    “No, was answering my own question!”
    .
    Sorry, I got lost. 🙂 (Hate that garish yellow thingy)

  • Clark

    CheebaCow, 10:11:

    “…democratic deficit… Since the 80′s governments… undermine local and traditional social/political structures and impose top heavy replacements. See ACTA or the Euro bailouts for examples.”

    Yes, I think this is what I was referring to; governmental systems capitulating to corporations and Big Money.
    .
    But what to do? With a sizeable proportion of the voters thinking mostly within the box provided by the corporate media, and the weightings built into the voting systems, what happens?

  • Uzbek in the UK

    Nuid
    .
    UN is extremely archaic institution that represents long gone world order established after WWII. The fact that nations like UK and France have more power in UN than Germany, Japan, India or Brazil speaks for itself.
    .
    But saying this it is the ONLY institution where most of the nations in the world are represented. Thus I am not supportive of an idea to get rid of UN, but it needs deep and significant reformation. At present it is not global institution, but club of 5, which does not represent either need or challenges of world at present.
    .
    As for electoral donations in US, this is another example of corruption. I presume that it will open a way to numerous donations from either quazi criminal or/and other questionable sources, not at least from friends of Israel gang.
    .
    The fact is that despite pioneering economic globalisation (where US corporations had upper hand at the beginning), US is the nation that will be the least willing in political integration, even in so called Americanisation. There are strong and powerful voices in the US (and in the UK for that matter) opposing to commit to the order that will be much influenced by foreigners (whom most Americans know nothing about). Thus at present we (the rest of the world) live in the order where 200 million US citizens (are allowed to) vote for the government that has profound effect on our own lives and well beings. Is this order more appealing to anyone?

  • Mary

    Wait for the wave of excruciating propaganda coming out over the airwaves. With P Anne and Ps Harry and William watching, in the company of John Major, two British women rowers have won a gold in the women’s pairs at Eton Dorney.
    .
    One of the two is an Army captain and will be going out to Afghanistan later this year. Isn’t that wonderful news?
    .
    Such jolly boating weather! Trust that the last line of the first stanza doesn’t come true for the army lady in Afghanistan.
    .
    1.
    Jolly boating weather,
    And a hay harvest breeze,
    Blade on the feather,
    Shade off the trees,
    Swing swing together,
    With your bodies between your knees,
    Swing swing together,
    With your bodies between your knees.
    6.
    Rugby may be more clever,
    Harrow may make more row,
    But we’ll row for ever,
    Steady from stroke to bow,
    And nothing in life shall sever
    The chain that is round us now,
    And nothing in life shall sever
    The chain that is round us now.
    7.
    Others will fill our places,
    Dressed in the old light blue,
    We’ll recollect our races,
    We’ll to the flag be true,
    And youth will be still in our faces
    When we cheer for an Eton crew,
    And youth will be still in our faces
    When we cheer for an Eton crew.
    8.
    Twenty years hence this weather
    May tempt us from office stools,
    We may be slow on the feather
    And seem to the boys old fools,
    But we’ll still swing together
    And swear by the best of schools,
    But we’ll still swing together
    And swear by the best of schools.
    .

  • nuid

    Will someone please look at the link I posted at 8.37 am. This is how American military ‘doctors’ are treating Afghan casualties in an American “military hospital” in Afghanistan. It’s positively sick-making. Is it any wonder that Afghans in uniform are attacking US troops?
    .
    Horror Hospital: The Most Shocking Photos And Testimony From The Dawood Military Hospital Scandal
    (Warning: Graphic images)
    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32025.htm
    .
    .
    “Thus I am not supportive of an idea to get rid of UN, but it needs deep and significant reformation.”
    .
    Agreed, Uzbek. I believe people have been saying that here for years.
    Mind you, I visit a Tea Party site occasionally, just to see what they’re on about
    (www.angrywhitedude.com) and they seem to firmly believe that it’s the UN which is trying to ‘take over the world’ (or at least their precious USA.) They furiously resent *any* initiative by the UN.
    .
    It’s hard to see how reform of the UN is going to come about, with the USA [+ Israel] undermining it at every opportunity.

  • Uzbek in the UK

    Mark Golding
    .
    Society where around 15% of population have dominant position and oppresses the rest is neither strong, nor long lasting.
    .
    Ask yourself why it is Middle East? Oil of course. BUT also the fact that few decades ago few smart heads in Paris and in London drawn the national borders without correspondence to the people who supposedly formed those nations by either ignorance, or (what I think is true) done this deliberately in order to freeze future conflicts.
    .
    I believe it was Bismark who said once that there was no conflict in Europe on which flames Austria did not cook its soup.
    .
    Conflicts are profitable and there always be some ‘Austrian’ who would like to cook their soup on the flames.

  • Mary

    Not slow off the mark are they?
    .
    01 August 2012
    .
    British Army Captain Heather Stanning and teammate Helen Glover win Britain’s first gold medal of the Olympic Games in the women’s coxless pair rowing.
    .
    The crowd at Eton Dorney went wild as the pair moved ahead of the competition, led from the front and dominated race.
    .
    The pair set a new Olympic record with a dominant victory in the first heat of the women’s pair and hopes were high for the final.
    .
    Members of 32 Regiment Royal Artillery, Heather’s regiment, currently serving in Afghanistan, were watching as she won the first Gold of the Games and made history gaining the first Gold medal in women’s rowing for Great Britain.

    /.,
    .
    http://www.army.mod.uk/news/24334.aspx

  • technicolour

    Nuid: I looked, and was aghast, and took my hat off to the whistleblowers. I think it is essential to know what is happening in Afghanistan and thank you. I agree, everyone should look.

    Horror Hospital: The Most Shocking Photos And Testimony From The Dawood Military Hospital Scandal
    (Warning: Graphic images)
    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32025.htm

  • Komodo

    NEED nationalism be bad? I’m seeing some rather poorly executed sarcasm, and a lot of assertions, but little serious debate. In fact I seem to have pushed a couple of you into the tender embrace of the multinationals. Which are busy ripping off resource-rich third-worlders in order to make the Chinese richer and the megabanks obscenely richer.
    .
    Nationalism isn’t the answer? Sure. What else have you got? How are you going to produce effective mass boycotts without a common cause? Are they even likely to work? Or is it that when push comes to shove, global corporatism suits you fine, and the out-of-town megamall saves you SO much time you can be driving nowhere in your car? I think that must be it.
    .
    Mary, why didn’t you invite the poor homeless man back with you? And please note that you need not one, but two jobs these days to get on the housing ladder. The (lost) link I gave was to a site detailing SOCIAL housing construction. This has been negligible for years.
    Do I really need to point out that queues for social housing have been endless ever since I can remember (I’ve been there, sweethearts. I have the experience), the situation is worse now, and as you very rightly remark a “temporary” worker settling here without apparent let or hindrance cannot afford a private house, so he joins the queue?
    40,000 of them annually.

  • Komodo

    Cheebacow:
    Picture, if you will, the entire population of Australia living on Tasmania (main island only) That is roughly the population density in England. I suggest that the problem has not yet begun to occur in Australia.

  • Mark Golding - Children of Iraq Association

    Tony Blair’s Iraq meetings to remain secret after government veto.
    .
    Attorney general Dominic Grieve overrides calls from freedom of information watchdog to release cabinet minutes from before 2003 Iraq invasion:
    .
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jul/31/iraq-invasion-government-documents-secret?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038
    .
    A petition here might be useful as a barometer of current public opinion on the present Middle East aggression.
    .
    Uzbek
    .
    I agree and more. Overpowering Syria is of course a pre-cursor to a strike on Iran’s nuclear industry.

  • technicolour

    Ah, the queues were endless, and now they’re worse.

    A nation is a notion, nothing more. Those who feel so inclined can imagine a nation of harmonious interactions and peaceful trade, of free movement and thought, of equality and individuality and cooperation; and they do. And others can choose to imagine a nation of power and judgements, of closed minds and borders, of superiority and inferiority, of members and outcasts and international supremacy. And they do, too. The difference between them is that the first is voluntary, and pleasant, and the second is so abhorrent that has to be imposed, using the very tools of its dark imaginings.

  • OldMark

    Komodo- excellent stuff from you @8.37 & 10.31

    CheebaCow @6.52

    1- yes,’UK culture’ is flailing around at the moment- and whether the UK will still exist in its present form post the 2014 Scottish referendum is a moot point.

    ‘However earlier ‘white’ Australian expectations were overly harsh and filled with racism, I like to think we are somewhat more civilised now.’ Agreed.

    On another topic, it seems as though eloquent critics of the American imperium are dropping like flies at the moment; Alexander Cockburn a few days ago, and now Gore Vidal.Sad to see them go.

  • Uzbek in the UK

    Komodo
    .
    In the world of today you cannot protect population of a nation by closing the borders, that is effectively what nationalism is about. Nationalism today is lose/lose situation. Autarchy is not an option today for even larger (that UK) economies. One cannot enjoy benefits of globalisation without contributing to it. It is not just about money and banks it is also about movement of labour and with them skills and ideas. Accidently US could be clear example of how migration of labour can contribute to the development of the nation (ironically slavery had also contributed to it). Imagine if first order of Washington after he became president was closing US borders and not allowing any single European to settle in the US. What would have happened?
    .
    Globalisation is not only about making Chinese richer. It is about allowing hundreds of millions of Chinese (Indians, Indonesian etc) from poorest rural areas to urbanise and contribute to the global economy. Benefits for UK (and other western societies) cheaper commodities, which in turn (following rules of economic theory) should have left more disposable income. But this in fact is consumed by inflated estate market, BUT this is not solely because of globalisation. Despite the fact of rising migration to EU, population is ageing rapidly. In 20-30 years time working population would need to contribute even more to keep education/health and other social services available. Problem of inflated housing in the UK (and in the west in general) can be solved on national levels WITHOUT harming benefits of globalisation.
    .
    Your arguments of globalisation is bad because rich getting richer mirroring Marxists (Utopian) argument that globalisation (Marxists were referring to capitalism) is altogether bad. There are obvious problems with globalisation but dismissing it altogether is least beneficial option. Like capitalism on national level, globalised capitalism can/need to be regulated and checked by governments that are legitimate and elected by whole global community and not just one nation.

  • technicolour

    Interesting book by George Monbiot on a world government – “The Age of Consent”

    “Our task is not to overthrow globalisation, but to capture it, and to use it as a vehicle for humanity’s first global democratic revolution.”

    All over our planet, the rich get richer while the poor are overtaken by debt and disaster. The world is run not by its people but by a handful of unelected or underelected executives who make the decisions on which everyone else depends: concerning war, peace, debt, development and the balance of trade. Without democracy at the global level, the rest of us are left with no means of influencing these men but to shout abuse and hurl ourselves at the lines of police defending their gatherings and decisions. Does it have to be this way?

    Drawing on decades of thinking about how the world is organized and administered politically, fiscally and commercially, Monbiot has developed an interlocking set of proposals, which attempts nothing less than a revolution in the way the world is run. If these proposals become popular, never again will people be able to ask of the critics of the existing world order, “we know what they don’t want, but what do they want?”

  • Chris Jones

    @komodo “In fact I seem to have pushed a couple of you into the tender embrace of the multinationals”.
    .
    ….seems so: suddenly a few are convinced that the new world order is the only way and any notion of individual countries is abhorrent.I wonder if the same commentators would be so quick to dismiss the rights of Tibet,the Tamil people of Sri Lanka,East Timor,Palestina, etc to having their own countries and decide democratically how they should be run?.
    .

    A lot of this atttude is not all the fault of individuals of course – it is deliberate pre programming by globalist doctrine to say and think the exact things mentioned by a few here, including the old chestnut of the reactionary accusing of anyone calmly and objectively discussing immigration, as racists and natzies etc etc

  • Mary

    Komodo 12.58 a) he was asleep and b) how do you know I haven’t done so already.
    .
    Technicolour Recommend a search on Medialens for Monbiot’s unpleasantness and hypocrisy and his recent rolling over to the nuclear energy lobby, the latter in spite of the Fukushima experience.

  • technicolour

    “As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests” (Gore Vidal)

    See above for the theory in practice.

  • technicolour

    Mary, I said it was an interesting book, and it is, for several reasons. I did not say I agreed with its conclusions, necessarily, or indeed Monbiot’s positions as a whole.

1 11 12 13 14 15 52

Comments are closed.