Olympic Athletes Village in Vancouver

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/01/09/bc-council-olympic-village.html

Summary:
Vancouver is spending $875 million to complete Olympic Athletes Village project. This project was funded by the Fortress Investment Group. Now that they have stopped providing funds, the government needs to look for another financial source to complete this project. The Olympic Athletes Village was initially budgeting for about $750 million but increasing construction cost estimate for an additional $125 million on the project. If the government cannot get a loan or funding, they may have to resort to the taxpayers of Vancouver. The Millennium Development Corporation had paid $200 million for the land and the Vancouver taxpayers could be stuck with paying off $875 million for this project.

Connection:
This article is related to the government’s role in a market economy. The government decides how to use the taxpayer’s money. In this case, it is to be used to build the Olympic Athletes Village. The people of Vancouver are to be paying for the construction of this project. People may not like this because they aren’t going to be using this. The construction of this project does have a positive third party effect. It is that this project is for the Olympics therefore more tourists would visit because winter games are being held in Vancouver. If more tourists come, it would bring in more revenue and it would further expand our economy because more people are spending. This creates more jobs and it becomes beneficial to the taxpayers in the long run.

Reflection:
Like most people, I wouldn’t like to see our tax money spent on something that we wouldn’t be using. However this project is being built to shelter tourists because the Olympic is going to bring in a lot of revenue. Most people who come here to watch the winter games are probably high class. Knowing that they are wealthy, they can boost our economy by spending more. If they enjoy their stay here, they may even decide to revisit or invest in Canadian property. Our economy functions best when people spend their money. If wealthy people live here, then our economy will grow.