TUC leader Brendan Barber has jumped on the back of Olympic
glory to make a strange analogy about the Games and how we
should run the economy. He criticises the notion that private is
better than public spending and that the market will deliver
better than government by pointing at the success of the
publicly funded and organised Olympic and Paralympic games, just
ahead of the TUC’s annual Congress.  Of course, the function of
the Olympic Games was to provide entertainment. Some may argue
that it will boost tourism and (temporary) employment but,
essentially, it is a sporting event. If we were to run the
country like the Olympics, we would produce a society in which
wage values would be polarised between very high achievers (the
Usain Bolts and Jessica Ennises) and the very low earners (the
many, many amateur athletes that do not manage to make it to the
Olympics). This is precisely the wage differentiation that the
TUC campaign against.  Barber ridicules the fact that government
claim they "can’t pick winner