How does an economic boost have unpaid bills?

Each time there’s a build-up of hype about how much an event will contribute to the local economy, I start to feel nervous and resistant.

I’d prefer to greet news of imminent prosperity with gushes of enthusiasm, but the way these events are sold to us makes me want to stand with my back to the wall, cynical and suspicious.

Most of my scepticism is a reaction to the promotion of the notion of ‘The Economy’. An abstract concept at the best of times, ‘The Economy’ has become to the likes of ye and me an emotional tipping point, because we’re consistently told that its needs are more important than our own.

We have started to feel like the krill that feed the whale. Clearly the krill can survive without the whale, but to keep the vast beast alive, new taxes are invented. Despite the fact that every red cent paid in benefits is immediately returned through spending into ‘The Economy’, welfare is cut.

Then there’s this huge headline proclaiming the arrival of a Major All-New Must-See Event that will bring a multi-million euro boost to the local economy, and we’re all meant to celebrate, participate and reap rich rewards.

But we don’t, because we feel so incredibly detached from ‘The Economy’. As mere fodder, we dare not hope to share in the harvest.For years before the Olympics, my friends and family over in London couldn’t have been more negative about the Games. Proud of their massive and majestic city, they simply didn’t understand why Lord Coe was rambling on about how the Olympic Games would put London on the map.

Do what? You’re ‘avin’ a laugh mate! London was, is and will always be very much on the map. Not one person alive today is marvelling at how, if it wasn’t for those Olympic Games, they’d never have discovered London.

Instead of the promised torrent of visitors, tourists stayed away from the Olympic City in their droves. London’s small businesses went through a Summer from hell, as those who went to the Games ignored the rest of the city and country. Hosting the Olympics proved an economic disaster for London, but Team GB medal euphoria saved the day.

I’ve been a huge fan of the Volvo Ocean Race ever since it was the Whitbread Race, decades ago. Yet I feel a sharp stab of anger when I read about the financial mess it left behind. How on earth can anyone be talking about how much it boosted the local economy when workers, suppliers and performers are still owed money?

I’ve seen many small businesses go broke in Galway, leaving in their wake a sad trail of broken promises and unpaid bills. When a restaurant suddenly stops trading without notice, the tiny businesses that supply it with their locally-sourced produce are left drowning in debt.

What can be more representative of the local economy than the bloke you see on Quay Street delivering his own-grown organic veg to that restaurant? But he’s the one who’s going to get screwed when the place goes broke.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.