These megaprojects seldom make sense for the taxpayer, and are a way for politicians, unions, and developers to all line their pockets. They typically hire “experts” to justify the project by promising unrealistic jobs, tourist spending, and phoney “multiplier effect” prosperity.
A recent Wall Street Journal editorial pointed out that in the last decade or so, Americans’ attendance at conventions is down some 30 percent, while cities have engaged in a kind of arms race to build more and glitzier convention centers by a like percentage. Sounds erily like a bubble is forming.
