Behold! The new home of my favorite sports team, the Dallas Cowboys. It will be the site of the 2011 NFL Super Bowl and many other marquee events. After pitting cities against each other during the search for a new site, Jerry Jones (Cowboys owner) finally got a fly in his web -- the city of Arlington.What's the price of this web that Jerry built? Over 1 billion dollars. That's $1,000,000,000... over 670,000,000 British Pounds... 781,250,000 Euros. A portion of this cost is shouldered by the City of Arlington, which they've raised hotel, car, and city taxes to cover.
This is right in the Heart of Texas, a so-called Red, Republican state that criticizes others for "tax and spend" tactics.... yet, this Republican stronghold has just embraced the concept of taxing people and their goods to fund what is essentially a private business. Do they reap rewards from such a deal? Of course they do, but how many other "Mom & Pop" businesses are they willing to donate tax money to build shops and stores for?
This is kinda like Billionaire owner Jerry Jones accepting stimulus money, really... so how could anyone in the glorious Red State of Texas criticize those like President Obama and the rest of us liberals who actually want more than just rich people to benefit from stimulus money? Just to give you something to salivate over:
$1,000,000,000 would give every follower of The Black Man Next Door's blog $52,631,578.95
If every one of those followers just put the money in an interest-bearing account, they'd amass over a whopping $1.25 million a year in interest. If each one of those followers formed their own company and paid salaries out of that interest money, they could supply enough yearly income for over 22 average U.S. families.
That's 418 families/1,672 people that are out spending money and driving the economy off of just interest payments. Instead, we can only HOPE that one Billionaire has that kind of aspirations... since jobs were just shuffled from one stadium to the other, he must be hoarding an ungodly amount of money -- and apparently paying a relatively few athletes MILLIONS of dollars to throw and catch a frickin' pigskin.... *sigh*
Rob from the poor, and give to the rich. God, I love this country!
I wonder, slightly off-subject maybe, just how many people will be able to "afford" to buy a ticket, season or per game option, in these trying economic times. Somehow I believe if a meal or two were missed, some fans would sell their kidneys just to watch such a spectacle of a pigskin being tossed in the air from one player to another. I love this country too, just a part of me is starting to question if I love it as much as I did say "20 years ago" or even "10 years previous". Something has happened. Greed overshadows all other prospects for a morality that once upon a time meant something or perhaps we were duped into believing it mattered all this time. I don't know as I type this comment. It might be true that the "Cowboys" are America's team but I cannot help to ponder upon the notion that America might not be the "Cowboys" meal ticket forever. Great blog once more, Mr. K. I salute you, my good man.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good ponderance, Constant... considering that people have to buy "personal seat licenses" just the have the RIGHT to buy premium tickets, Jerry Jones could conceivably recoup most of portion of the costs to build the blasted thing.
ReplyDeleteThe "something has happened", in my opinion, is a realization that more money, power, and control is being coagulated and distributed to fewer and fewer people. I mean, seriously... I'll have to pick up on overtime shift JUST to pay for a parking ticket.
I could go on and on... and if I didn't have a toothache on a brutal graveyard shift, I would. :-) I'll spare you this time.
this country is so sad
ReplyDeleteok Wonder Man I don’t think this country is sad at all...yes we may have our flaws...but its really not that bad...we could be living in anther third world country ,who is dominated by a communist dictatorship where we didn’t have any choices at all…or be so poverty and aids stricken that we had to live in tin shacks and have to rely on donations from other countries for health care and money…..I think we are blessed to be Americans …trust me it could be a lot worse…ok now to the matter at hand…I think its sad that in these shaky financial times…the city of Arlington and the lone star state green lighted such a waste of money….I mean I agree that the money could go to so much better use than a new football stadium….I personally don’t get football anyway(the concept is completely lost on me)…but I don’t begrudge any fans of enjoying the sport….but when the economy is taking a nose dive and they had to raise taxes to cover part of the cost of building it…I think this was a bad idea…alas some want to sit on their high horses and neigh say on more taxes to help fix existing problems , but yet turn a blind eye on wasteful spending like this…..ahhh what hypocrites….but all I can say is this… I can think of better ways to spend money than building a new stadium when the old one worked just fine….and if u are going to be against taxing then don’t allow such wasteful spending like this …pick a side and stick to it…..maybe one day the ones who came after us will learn from our mistakes
ReplyDeleteI guess if you're into football, this is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteOr is it?
Does it send the message that therich can get the tax money they need to upgrade their business ventures while the rest of America, most of America, are left wanting.
I don't think this is the time for such a venture, although from the looks of construction, it's been going on a while.
Bob, that's exactly the message I take from it.. and I feel it is never the time for a private venture to be permanently funded with public money -- unless we get dividends.
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