Political bets are often governed by populist performance and, without a doubt, sport in Spain sells. If Madrid organizes an Olympics,Spain a soccer world cup oValencia one day of Formula 1 everyone will be very handsome in the photos and for posterity. A real pity that lately we have never won.
Spain and Portugal promised to invest up to around 2 billion euros if they were the organizers of the 2018 World Cup. What is the real return on these investments? Spain’s GDP would grow by 3% according to Ángel López, General Director of the Iberian candidacy. Of course, a figure that if true is not negligible. But what kind of growth would we have? Wouldn’t it be more “business as usual” growth?: Infrastructures and bricks, which are then left empty, that unsustainable growth of which we know so much .
Investing in Science and Technology, in innovation, in Education, in talent, unfortunately does not provide many photographs. These are long-term bets and revenues that are returned to society and the economy, without great expense. However, today all economists and experts agree that sustainable economic and social development is fundamentally based on these pillars.
For the record, I am not against organizing large events, festivals and festivals. But, for once, I would like to see so much enthusiasm and perseverance in pursuing a Spanish region, city or university to be in first place in some scientific, technological or innovation discipline. When we see this we will do much better.
(Creative Commons header image thanks to jl.cernadas)