Black men simply can’t help taking and spending other peoples money
Alrighty then...
Amazing << Hear this. Feel this, and tell me that this isn't music.
Oh, dear...
Posted on 06/28/2009 4:43:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
Michael Jackson’s creditors have been victimized, and they “deserve” a taxpayer-funded bailout.
No, wait. Michael Jackson was victimized by “predatory” fans, managers, and concert promoters, and the surviving family “deserve” a bailout.
How do we apply the Obama era’s “economics of victimization” to the business debacle that is Michael Jackson? Right now, as the initial shock of his death has begun to fade, it appears that “the king” left this world owing people about $400 million.
I intend no insensitivity to Jackson‘s legacy, and I respect the amazing place he and his brothers holds in the history of entertainment. Long before I went to graduate school, and then worked my way up to being an Author, and a Columnist, and a Talk Show Host - once a long, long time ago, I (like Rush and Glenn Beck) was a music radio “disc jockey.” The release of the “Thriller” album, the Michael Jackson / MTV entertainment era, and the Jacksons’ historic “Victory” tour are all intertwined with my high school and college years, and my former career as a “deejay.“ Suffice it to say that I still know every beat and note of “Billie Jean” and “Beat It,” and I respect the fact that the Jacksons are “serious business.”
Yet while all these great, “historic” things are true about Michael Jackson, it’s also true that this one, individual human being so severely mismanaged his own life, business, and finances, that he died owing people almost half a BILLION dollars. And there are some things to be learned from this debacle.
For one, the behavior that seems to have led to Jackson’s personal financial disaster should suggest that similar behavior in the public sector could create a public financial disaster.
Michael Jackson apparently had a propensity to spend money he didn’t actually possess, and his recklessness will likely hurt his surviving family and closest business associates. That‘s sad, but at least the pain will likely be confined to his “inner circle.”
Unfortunately, our President and the majority of the U.S. Congress are also displaying “Jackson-like” behavior, spending money that they don’t actually possess. And to the extent that “public funds” are ever actually “possessed” by the President, those funds don‘t actually belong to the President anyway- - that money belongs to we, the people, and so does the debt that President Obama is accruing.
Americans can afford to “tune out” millionaire celebrities who do stupid things and financially destroy themselves. But Americans of good faith and with a moral conscience cannot afford to ignore the financial destruction that is transpiring in Washington. Dangerous financial behavior is what it is, regardless of whether it happens in the private sector or the public sector. The distinguishing questions between the two are “whose money and debt are in question?” and “who gets burned?” With our government, the answers to those questions are “our money,” “our debt,“ and “all of us.”
Jackson’s calamity should also tell us some things about our American economy. During his campaign, Barack Obama railed against America’s “failed economic system,” and since becoming President, he has undermined our free-market economic system fairly consistently, spending our money to rescue certain individuals and corporations that behaved their way into economic crises, and seeking to legislatively put an end to economic “risk taking.”
But if certain middleclass Americans who bought more house than they could afford or accrued too much credit card debt, can now claim to be “victims” of so-called “predatory” lenders and need to be “rescued“ by President Obama, couldn’t we also say that Michael Jackson was, in his final days, a “victim” of a “predatory” concert promoter? As recently as March, Jackson was persuaded to do business with the risk-taking billionaire concert promoter Phillip Anschutz and his ‘AEG Live” entertainment group, the company that was producing Jackson’s “come back” tour. And despite the fact that Jackson had missed nearly all of the recent rehearsal dates, the tour plans remained in place, right up to the day Jackson died, and now Anschutz is left with unpaid bills and Jackson fans are left wondering if they’ll get a refund on the concert tickets they pre-purchased.
My point here is that our American economic system has not failed, as President Obama has asserted, and the thought of the President of the United States rescuing people from the “risks” of the rock-n-roll industry is absurd. But the thought that the President should “rescue” people from other sectors of the economy is equally absurd, and equally destructive.
Whether one is wealthy like Michael Jackson, or middleclass like most of the rest of us, being “free” and ‘taking risks” are good things. But our risk taking has to be tempered with the adult virtues of discernment, delay of gratification, self-restraint, and so forth.
Risk taking, alone, is insufficient. And President Obama’s special “ rescue programs” are no substitute for adult virtues.
Greed has a way of backfiring!
Sounds like a good career move
Good point
Jackson’s part ownership of the Beatles catalog was his collateral. Sony will take full ownership and Jackson memorabilia and the vault of 200 songs will make his kids and everyone else rich. There may also be a life insurance policy but he was such a flake who knows about that.
They better not use my tax dollars to bailout some white
entertainer. Oh,wait.
Michael Jackson’s life is the allegory for this nation’s descent.
Self indulgence.
Narcissism.
Wasted talent.
Conspicuous consumption.
Depravity.
If I want it - I should get it.
Children as accessories.
Weird is wonderful.
Lousy judgement.
Sexual confusion.
Eternal immaturity
No one seemed to care what 3 kids were going through, least of all the “fans”. The kids were pets, toys for display and nothing more. I’ll never understand the adulation shown for this creep, it’s got to be a symptom of mass insanity.
Can’t they sell Neverland and the Beatles’ publishing rights, or something?
Can’t Janet foot the bill? What’s family for?
How about Quincy, Diana Ross, Elizabeth Taylor, Berry Gordy, Brooke Shields, Lisa Marie, etc.? What are friends for?
“Children as accessories.”
This part I disagree with. Michael kept the kids shielded more than any major celebrity I know of. There weren’t any pictures of their faces until recently.
Unless you mean he had them (or bought them, or whatever) to add something to the decor, like more intelligent versions of Bubbles. That’s possible. But if so, at least he kept them as indoor trophies.
“The kids were pets, toys for display and nothing more”
Again, I disagree. I give him credit for keeping the kids tucked away.
You think they had a normal childhood? He deserves credit for nothing!
-— “Unfortunately, our President and the majority of the U.S. Congress are also displaying “Jackson-like” behavior, spending money that they don’t actually possess. And to the extent that “public funds” are ever actually “possessed” by the President, those funds don‘t actually belong to the President anyway- - that money belongs to we, the people, and so does the debt that President Obama is accruing.”
Has anyone else heard or read the snippit I heard the other day that the government will be the next bubble to burst?
What in the world would that mean to us ordinary folks?
**snicker**
Add Islam to that list. He was Muslim.
Conclusion:
Black men simply can’t help taking and spending other peoples money
“You think they had a normal childhood? He deserves credit for nothing!”
Not normal, and maybe not best even under the circumstances. But you have to take into account that he was Michael Jackson, and as such there were limits to how normal the kids could have had it. Given the circumstances, I’d say he did well to shield them from the glare.
Now, he deserves censure for dying young and leaving them alone, also being a drug addict and messing up his finances. But that wasn’t at issue. I was addressing the narrow subject of whether he treated them as accessories, and I say he did not. Not publicly.
I think I’m entitled to a bailout of the pain and suffering induced by the nausea of seeing his freaky appearance plastered everywhere you look and his torturous caterwauling coming out of somebody’s radio speakers at work for hours on end.
We could also consider that M.Jackson was a naive child propelled by parents and talent into a god-like existence.
These pathetic celebrity gods exist, because we worship them!!!!
Stop the madness!!!!!!!!!
Go to church!
Alrighty then...
Amazing << Hear this. Feel this, and tell me that this isn't music.
Oh, dear...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.