Everyone knows the value of a single dollar but it is far harder to get your head around sums with many digits, especially when they reach the billion-dollar level. Governments seem especially bad at this but, then again, they are used to spending other folk's money, and what comes out of other people's pockets never has quite the impact of what comes out of your own.
With this in mind, let's examine the extraordinary business of new government estimates for hosting the 2023 Asian Games. When the bureaucrats first mooted a Hong Kong bid, they solemnly told us that they had been extremely prudent in budgeting HK$13.7 billion to HK$14.5 billion for direct costs. But, this week, they've managed to cut that right down to less than HK$6 billion. As ever, this is not the whole story because there's still a sum of over HK$30 billion for other capital costs. By any standards, this is a vast amount of money.
However, the same people who keep saying that there is not enough in the kitty to provide a decent pension for hard-working elderly people are busy informing us that Hong Kong is rich enough to indulge in this extraordinary vanity project. The Games could, no doubt, be well organised but, at the end of the day, this is a sporting event and let's be frank: Hong Kong is good at many things but sport is not among them and is unlikely to become so.
Considerations of this kind and the prospect of a really huge bill turned even government-friendly legislators against the idea of a Games bid, which explains why the administration is suddenly able to make savings of this order. Nevertheless that still leaves a total bill of around HK$36 billion, which is not most folks' idea of modest.
The very clever people, who can envisage themselves standing on a platform with international sporting stars, have trotted out all the usual arguments for hosting these Games. They are, in summary: a promise that the Games will improve Hong Kong's image; will stimulate sporting endeavour; will create infrastructure to be used for decades to come; and, will be self-financing, therefore creating no real burden.
Promises about things like image are so intangible as to not be worth the paper they are printed on. And, as for the idea that building massive stadiums will somehow help little Johnny in Tin Shui Wai develop sporting skills that are beyond him in a tiny playground, well, this is just so much hot air. Indeed, the way the government has managed to trim its budget for this event has been to cut out a refurbishment programme for indoor sports centres, precisely the places most likely to give local sporting enthusiasts a venue.