Like so many things, it all started with Enron over a decade ago. Because of their fraud, Enron got so bloated with cash that it didn’t know what to do with it all. So it started buying up the naming rights of things. First the building that its offices were in became known as the Enron Building, although Enron wasn’t the only business that had headquarters there. Eventually, it bought a sports stadium just to have its name everywhere it could. Other businesses followed suit.
A wave of Proposition 13 copycats had lowered the available tax money for states and cities, so when corporations started waving money around, state and local governments were happy to get it. They sold naming rights on anything they could. Because of conservative officials who keep trying to beat down the tax rates, this trend continues today. But the epitome was Arizona, who first reduced taxes, then, in order to have enough money to operate, started selling off historical monuments (not the names, the actual buildings). By 2010 they were reduced to selling the state capitol building in a deal where they were “allowed” to lease the building back from the new owners. Unfortunately, Arizona doesn’t have the money to make the lease payments, so now it’s ready to buy it back. How will they afford it? There’s been some talk of selling the Grand Canyon (which is actually a federal park).
What gets me is that people never learn. Conservative financial theories don’t work. It’s been proven more than once that disaster follows quickly in the footsteps of any government that tries them. But, since they offer a “quick fix” (or ready cash), empty-headed voters keep repeating the same mistake over and over. What’s it going to take to learn our lesson? Last time it took a world-wide depression that lasted from 1928-1940. Even after taking that lesson to heart, 40 years later we were blindly following the Reganites back down into the wasteland of “trickle-down” economics. We narrowly missed repeating ourselves four years ago, but even that wasn’t enough to teach us anything. Looking around the world today (think Greece), it’s obvious that we’re headed back into that black hole again. Personally, I don’t want to have to live through such dark times. But it may be the only way we can learn…at least for forty years or so.
