I just saw this article, which says Mayor Daley has guaranteed the city of Chicago will foot the $500+ million bill for the Olympics... assuming of course that Chicago wins our bid for the games.

Now, on the one hand I totally support the idea. Hear me out on this one: if Chicago wants the Olympics (an idea I actually like) we're obviously going to have to pay for something. I don't claim to know anything about the city budget, but it seems to me that the Olympics could make a lot of money for the city. Thus, in theory that $500 million might be a good investment.

On the other hand, $500 million is a shitload of money. I don't even know if that's a realistic estimate, or what exactly that pays for. Does the US government, the state of IL, or the international Olympic committee help us out?

Obviously, that $500 million dollars could pay for a lot of things in Chicago: fixing potholes, fixing/updating public transportation, buying corrupt politicians (joking...).

So what do you think about Chicago spending $500 million dollars on the Olympics?