Yesterday I heard the people who missed the Super Bowl due to faulty seats are suing the NFL for 5 Million dollars. The NFL has already offered a three times refund on their tickets as well as a free trip and tickets to the next Super Bowl. Now, I admit, it sucks to get booted from an event, I can only imagine it being a Super Bowl. The Cowboys and the NFL were bound to do something to fix the issue, and they did. What they didn't bank on was the culture of the United States. We are both a greedy and desperate people.
We are the marketing and advertising guinea pigs of the world. Constantly being flashed images of the next thing "you just have to have." Not only are ads everywhere, but celebrity is splashed in our faces every day as well. Seeing so many people on yachts with a helicopter makes a yacht without a helicopter just seem primitive. I mean, whose yacht doesn't have a helicopter? Only losers. Now, I'm not saying anything new here in mentioning that the US is big consumer engine that is driven by greed and fed by savvy marketing. In fact, having all that choice and freedom to buy everything the world has to offer is the new great promise of America. Yeah, sure, freedom of religion and assembly too, but who uses those? It's the ability to but mangoes during winter in North Dakota that people truly relish. Americans are greedy, and for good reason, the opportunity to be greedy is glamorized and presented to us on a daily basis. The problem is not the greed, it's the desperation.
The top 1 percent of the country has 42 percent of the wealth in the country. Their net worth is greater than the total of the bottom 90 percent. Upward mobility has essentially ended as well, the President not withstanding. What this creates is a desperate nation. One that would be rallying on the streets of DC like so many in Cairo, were we not dumbed down, over saturated with entertainment, and provided a decent standard of living on the pittance thrown at us by the elite classes. Of course, every penny of what Americans make need to be spent in order to have a decent lifestyle, and anything left over will be squandered at the altar of those advertising guys...you gotta admit, they are great at getting us to buy stuff. So what is the dream of it all? Wal-Mart. McDonald's. Coka-Cola. NFL. Hopefully an American can have a slip and fall at a big store, spill a drink on their lap, find a finger in a can, or even get kicked out of the Super Bowl. It's the American lotto, baby! The American dream has become one that is based on getting paid absurd amounts of money for something minor that a corporation "did to you." Now, the inclination is to blame the whiners. Blame the people trying to get money they don't really deserve, why are they trying to game the system? But the reality is that we need to examine the root cause.
The glamorized, advertised image of success in this country has gotten so far away from what any American can even hope to attain on their own that ripping open the Golden Ticket is the only way we as a people see to succeed. When one man works for 20k a year and another makes 300 Million a MONTH, there is a disparity that the former can never even fathom closing. The only way is to either win the lottery or hit the jackpot...a big fat law suit. That greed coupled with desperation is on display right now as people grab for a little taste of the good life. Let's not forget, Jerry Jones has a 400 Million dollar television. I say give it to them. Let a few more people in those gates, don't worry, 5 Million won't keep them there long. And it certainly wont get them a yacht with a helicopter.
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