The Ballers Rule the World
As a watched the NBA finals game at Madison Square Garden in NYC this week, the arena was packed to the rafters with Knick fans who paid between $9100 -$10,000 for a nosebleed seat. Courtside tickets went up to $20,000, for the three hour event that could have been watched for free at home. The last time the Knicks were in the 1999 N.B.A. finals, the upper deck seats were 35-50 dollars ticket. It’s a perfect example of the growing gap wealth gap between the haves and the have nots in America today.
Recently, it was reported that the richest man in America, Elon Musk, will become the first individual to become a “Trillionaire.” That’s $1,000,000,000,000. That’s equal to one thousand billion dollars. That is unimageable amount of wealth. The financial pundits predict many more will follow Musk in the Trillion Dollar boys Club. I remember when it was announced that Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, was one of the first billionaires of the tech age. Today, according to CHAT GPT, there are 986 billionaires living in America. Today the Top 10% wage earners in America own about 65% of all American wealth while the bottom 50% (you and me) own around 2-3% of all wealth in America. But we aren’t supposed to notice that.
I remember taking a political science class in college that studied Karl Marx, the father of Communism. Marx wrote the framework for understanding society and history through the lens of class conflict. He essentially predicted that capitalism would eventually implode because of the innate greed of men who would exploit the masses and inspire the proletariats to start a revolution.
Also, this week, Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner acquired an Island to build a luxury resort on Albania’s Sazan Island, a former military island in the Mediterranean Sea. Reports put the investment at roughly $1.4 billion, with plans for a high-end “eco-resort” including hotels and villas. However, the people of Albania ain’t having it and mass protest have broken out in that country. Interestingly, the Island has tunnels and bomb proof bunkers left over from W.W. II. The perfect getaway spot for the rich and famous to avoid worldwide nuclear chaos and destruction. Somebody knows something big is going to happen, and the world’s elite already have a plan on where and what they are going to do when the crap hits the fan. They might have a plan, but there is no plan for the masses in America
Baby Boomers might remember the air drills in school, where we hand to file into the halls and crouch against the walls and tuck our heads between our legs to kiss our butt’s goodbye, in case of an attack. There were also civil defense signs on buildings throughout that neighbor hood designated as a safe place to go to in case of an attack. Kids were told to look for the yellow tringle civil defense signs on buildings if they became separated from their loved ones in an emergency.
None of that is even discussed today. I think that the powers that be have no plans to help those without means to find refuge— the lowly proletariats.