Olympics, Government, Big projects and failure

The late, great Harry Browne continually used to say that "government doesn't work". He even wrote a book on that subject.

Browne was a man of great wisdom, and as such, this Olympics situation has proven him right. Government projects are continuously over budget and even turn out to be white elephants. The Millennium Dome in London is a fine example of the latter.

The free market recognises it only has limited funds in order to finance a project. It also realises that a return can be made if a project is managed successfully. Really, all major public projects should be wholly financed by the free market. Look at Wembley Stadium. The government partly financed this, and it's completion was months behind schedule. Arsenal financed the Emirates Stadium with private funding and it's completion matched proposed scheduling.

Government is slow and cumbersome. Ronald Reagan (despite actually increasing the size of the US federal government) was right in saying that government is the problem, not the solution.