Hi Freeus,
Let me try to clarify it a little.
I believe the Japanese owners of Nintendo own most of the Mariners. The guy from MSFT (Jeff Raikes?) owns about 5% if I'm not mistaken.
It seems a group of owners with integrity would have gone by the democratic vote. I think the stadium campaigners far outspent the opponents, and they still lost.
It galled me when, the friday before the election, the internal MSFT newspaper urged all employees to vote for the stadium, saying (just like they'd been on the sports radio station) that it would only cost each person "$7 a year" ... since it was to be based upon a sales tax, for the average MSFT employee it would have been much more than $7. Anyone reading that with 1st grade math and a lick of common sense could see it was going to cost more.
The article went on to say how it would make Seattle more of an international city, etc., etc.
Why should I pay out of my pocket so a bunch of rich kids can play ball?
The generation that's growing up now doesn't have the attention span for baseball. I expect the MLB to run into financial problems if they haven't already... they kind of lost me after that last strike....
There is a lot of that stuff going on around here. I'm no fan of Nader, but he dubbed it "the Banana Republic of Washington State" - apt I suppose - after that last Football Election (another story).
As for democracy, I've never been a big fan of it but when the vote goes my way and the legislators overturn the supposed "majority will of the people," it rubs me the wrong way.
You gotta keep your eye on these really rich people and their most visible puppets, the politicians... some of them do what I would call downright sleazy things. Poor people do sleazy things as well, come to think of it, but the actions of the rich and powerful seem to affect more of us, don't you think?
And when it comes to MSFT - and its competitors - there's plenty of sleaze to go around, again in my opinion.
You know what they say: It ain't easy bein' sleazy.
FWIW
Andy |
