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Today's frightening factoid

Now, let's be clear. I don't traffic in Britney Spears. Couldn't pick her song out in a blind test, and probably wouldn't recognize her on TV if there weren't paparazzi all around her. But a wire service report in this morning's paper indicates that the new Portfolio magazine reckons Ms. Spears contributes $110-$120 million to the U.S. economy. Simply by existing.

Not so much of that is sticking to her fingers, of course. The paparazzi, this story says, clear $4-million simply photographing the woman. Kevin Federline, to finish this sad litany, apparently makes $1-million a year simply showing up at nightclubs as the ex-Mr. Spears.

Well, there's one more bit. The Portfolio article says the media does $75-million in business a year chatting about Ms. Spears. Tabloids sell 33 percent more copies when she's on the cover.

The shame of belonging to the fringe of that caste.

This is what, in Japan, they call the water trade: work which adds no value to society, though I'm probably approximating that phrase badly as I ran onto it twenty years ago.

On the other hand, how many of us can claim to be worth anything like $100-million to the U.S. economy.

Yeah, OK. Speaking of the economy...about those rebates. You've got to be kidding. THIS is what we can get the Democrats and Republicans to agree upon? All they're doing is adding to the deficit -- which needs no help growing at an exponential rate -- and throwing a quick burst of consumer fast cash at the megacorps. Nobody is really going to be helped by these rebates, but it gives the politicians plausible deniability: "See we did something."

Dear elected officials: Try wrestling with the fundamental problems we face. We're in the middle of an expensive and idiotic war. We're destroying the environment. We've allowed the megacorps to usurp many if not all of the prerogatives necessary to sustain a democratic society. There are few (if any) jobs available to the working and middle class who happen to be tool smart instead of computer smart, which means fewer and fewer U.S. citizens are able to drive the consumer economy. We have eroded if not destroyed the American dream. Affordable housing, decent health care, the national highway infrastructure, port security...you name it. We've got big problems. Problems no one-time rebate is going to solve. None of us are running for re-election.

And the truth is this: So long as the megacorps have influence in the electoral process, none of it is going to change.

The truth is also this: We get what we pay for. Taxes have to go up if we're to live in the society we claim to desire.

Sorry...that's a long way from Britney Spears. Or maybe it's not.

Bread and circuses.

Posted by grant on January 26, 2008 1:48 PM | Permalink