Shikha Dalmia on Why London Is Yawning Over the Olympics

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The Olympics are a giant exercise in sports socialism, writes Shikha Dalmia, where the profits are privatized and the costs socialized. The games never pay for themselves because they are designed not to. That's because the International Olympic Committee (an opaque "nongovernmental" bureaucracy made up of fat cats from various countries) pockets most of the revenue from sponsorships and media rights. Perhaps that's why so few Londoners seem excited about the Olympics coming to town. Is the era of nationalistic fervor whipped up through mega-projects finally coming to an end?