Americans are struggling through a deep economic funk.
They won’t buy cars (see General Motors, near bankruptcy). They won’t buy televisions (see Circuit City, bankruptcy). They won’t buy houses (see your neighborhood). They won’t even buy that pricey Starbucks latte as often anymore (see Starbucks, earnings declined by 97 percent).
But there’s a way out of this morass. And we don’t mean another megabucks government bailout. People may not be spending money on clothing and toys and fancy restaurant meals and all the other stuff they once frittered their paychecks on.
But they are spending money on Barack Obama.
They’re clamoring for tickets to his inauguration, reportedly snapping up ticket brokers’ offers at $21,716 for a pair of ducats to the swearing-in. That’s before a single ticket has even been issued. They’re still swarming into Tribune Tower to buy the historic Nov. 5 paper and other Obama memorabilia, thank you very much. Anything with his signature is said to be selling briskly.
Usually this country shakes off its economic doldrums slowly. Confidence returns. Jobs get created and filled. People start spending again. Tax revenues grow.
But that can take awhile. The Obama opportunity — to dredge the country out of this painful slowdown — is here right now.
Isn’t it obvious? The president-elect is a prodigious fundraiser. How about turning his planetary celebrity into a cash machine to spur commerce and ease the federal deficit?
Sure, those tickets to the inauguration are supposed to be free. But why? Why not auction them to the highest bidders worldwide, all proceeds to the U.S. Treasury? You want to sit next to Warren Buffett? That’ll cost another $10 million. Oprah? Make it $50 mil.
Obama made a campaign pledge to hike taxes on the wealthy. But isn’t this budget-balancing effort more immediate?
A hit movie can generate hundreds of millions in merchandising. A politician of Obama’s appeal? We’re thinking of numbers that would cover the federal deficit and then some. The world has lots of rich people waiting to be exploited. Does Obama have a few minutes every day to sign photos? Or T-shirts? Lyrics from “Hail to the Chief”?
