Bruce Springsteen, always billing himself as a working class singer singing working class tunes, seems to really prefer singing “Born in the U.S.A.” to the silver spooners.
“Tickets for Bruce Springsteen’s “River Tour” with the E-Street Band went on sale Friday morning, with most stops on the nine-week U.S. jaunt selling out within minutes. But many fans are grumbling over the high ticket prices, as well as the resale sites snatching up the majority of seats only to sell them for many times the original cost.
The cheapest tickets for Springsteen’s January 31 show in Newark started at $272, while seats for his February 4 show in Boston began at $239. On Twitter fans have expressed anger that there was no pre-sale or options for exclusive discounts, with one person tweeting that the costs meant Springsteen “is a troubadour for the one percent now.”
This is part of a very disturbing trend in the entertainment business, including sports, as gangster capitalism reaches it’s hyper stage.
The gap between the have’s and the have nots is becoming increasingly large with no end in sight. In major league baseball, a star pitcher was just signed to a six year, $206 million dollar contract to play baseball in Arizona. That’s 37 million PER YEAR to play baseball. Another player, good but not great, is set to command over $200 million when his contract is offered. In professional basketball, two players who already receive over $20 million per year to play basketball also signed contracts with shoe companies paying them over $20 million per year to endorse their increasingly expensive shoes and apparel.
Famous former professional basketball player Michael Jordan became a billionaire last year. Current famous basketball professional player Lebron James will undoubtedly become a billionaire sooner than Jordan did. We’re on the verge of having a whole new section in the billionaire class made up of professional ahtletes and entertainers.
Next year the “salary cap” is being lifted in the National Basketball Association whereby typical NBA contracts for star players will start veering toward 50 million per year not including endorsement contracts.
Meanwhile, people making $7.25 per hour are shut out of attending music or sporting events because tickets now cost a week’s wages or more. It used to be the people in the working class would work hard and save their money for annual vacations. Now vacations are out of the questions and they try to save their money to go to a two hour game or concert. Even that’s becoming impossible.
This is all par for the course now for human societies on this planet. The “One Percent” live like royalty while the rest of us, the Serfs, are left to languish in the muck fighting over raising a minimum wage that keeps them in perpetual poverty.
Entertainers like Bruce Springsteen and sports stars like Lebron James have turned into the 21st century equivalent of Court Jesters, enterntainers for the King and his Court. The rest of us are being left outside the castle walls.
Can you hear it? They’re singing “Glory Days” in their designer jeans and designer shoes while drinking their designer drinks. Sounds like they’re having fun doesn’t it?
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
I wrote a post a while back calling for a boycott of professional sports, particularly the big four, because of the absurd contracts given out. Of course, I call for a boycott of everything I think is unjust, but what else are we going to do. A boycott against pro sports is easier though because most of us can’t afford the damn things anymore anyway.
But something’s got to give man, like I said above “there is no end in sight”. It’s like my earlier article, “They’re Not going to Stop”. We’re on this wealth inequality trajectory that keeps getting worse and absolutely NOTHING is being done to change it. I don’t even hear any discussions about these amazing contracts being given out in sports.
I’ve said many times, we better stop it before we have trillionaires, because that’s going to happen, if it hasn’t already.
A boycott of professional sports by the 99% is getting easier and easier each price rise in tickets. The working class, but not the professional class are even being priced out of some minor league venues. But the same pricing issues are going on for science museums, a lot of art museums (except on Free Day), and other cultural events.
I hope the 1% learn something; most working class folks who identified with Springsteen’s music already knew what it was like to be Born in the USA. And his popularity was built on an antiwar middle class audience.
In other news, the number of voices calling for Rahm Emanuel’s and Anita Alvarez’s resignations is increasing and brodening. It seems that sitting on a video tape and trying to buy off Laquan McDonald’s family’s silence has hit a nerve in Chicago and elsewhere. Even Daily Kos sports a Rahm Resign petition link on its front page. Apparently right now, protesters are sitting in State Street in front of the library stopping evening rush hour traffic. The cops are there but certainly not guarding the protesters’ safety. Twitter is aflame with trolling of bogus reports of protesters with weapons. The Big Blue Gang doesn’t want to see their corrupt racket shut down. Given Chicago’s history, things could get rather nasty. And given the bias of the Wall Street media, nasty would represent a new level of repression. But if Rahm and Alvarez do resign, share a toast of your preferred consciousness altering substance for celebration. And watch for how the succession until a special election turns.
I would absolutely ‘love’ to see Rahm run out on a rail.
Heck, I’m still reeling from his re-election, and wondering ‘how’ he got re-elected. What’s wrong with those folks?
(Sorry, don’t mean to be offensive; but, really.)
Blue
Probably the worst tactical mistake the resistance in Chicago could make is pushing for the resignation of Rahm or Anita, the movement would probably collapse in faux victory and self-congratulation as the new leaders of the regime move in to reestablish the status quo with empty promises of reform.
There is probably no winning this conflict but Rahm and Anita could at least be publicly and continually exposed and required to make their feeble responses and if they are gone who will be challenged, the Aldermen?
Calling for their prosecution while in office for obvious crimes and watching them perp-wallked off to prison would be a real victory, anything else is just political maneuvering.
Who is going to perp-walk them off to prison? The CPD? Who is going to convene the grand jury to indict Anita Alvarez? The States Attorney? She is the local States Attorney? The State Attorney General? The US Attorney? The US Attorney General?
The PTB can try to co-opt the movement by forcing Emanuel and Alavarez to resign — they are not Richard J. Daleys and definitely not the PTB themselves. Or they has try to hold the fort.
The Chicago resistence, as you call it, is very devolved and to a great degree appears to operate through setting events and awaiting whatever coalition shows up. The #ResignRahm event touched a nerve and many of the different groups who have been protesting his behavior in office turned out and some were coordinated at the scene enough to shut down Lake Shore Drive at rush hour. But you are not yet talking about huge numbers turning out, just carefully calculated disruptive tactics. The folks there have a lot of work yet to do to have power or influence to move a city the size of Chicago.