Well, now that everyone has had a week to ruminate over Michael Jackson’s death, I felt that he would be a fairly appropriate topic. Instead of writing about my memories from the Super Bowl XXVII halftime show, “Billie Jean”, and the first week of this past season of American Idol, his financial situation is the topic that intrigues me.
At the time of his death, Michael Jackson was approximately $400 million in debt. That’s not a typo. His financial people said that he was spending $20-$30 million more annually than he was making. That’s called a stimulus package. Since he died at the age of 50, Michael Jackson spent about $8 million more than he made each year of his life.
The United States is about $12 trillion in debt, and it seems that we just continue to increase spending every year. I guess the theory is that the more you spend, the better you become at it. Practice makes perfect, right?
One of his first major purchases took place in 1988 when he bought the property to build his ranch. His obsession with Peter Pan eventually inspired him to transform that property into Neverland Ranch, where he often housed children and slept in bed with them because it wasn’t inappropriate behavior. Records show he spent about $17 million for the property, and then who knows how much to build everything, from ferris wheels to bumper cars.
One of Michael Jackson’s more brilliant financial moves was when he purchased the rights for the Beatles music.
He blew a ton of money on surgeries and procedures to change his appearance. Those closest to Michael say that he despised his father, so in an attempt to avoid the appearance of his father, he changed his appearance. And how many procedures did he undergo? Michael Jackson hasn’t spoken on the subject in the past couple weeks, but I’m sure the amount of money he poured into the processes were unprecedented.
While those closest to him place his father as the reason for the changes, I have an alternate theory.
Coincidence, or obsession?
Then there is the money he spent on prescription drugs to feed his habit. Not only was he spending tons of money on prescription drugs, he hired a doctor in order to have those prescriptions prescribed.
With $400 million of debt, the plan to pay it off is by selling the rights to the Beatles music, selling off his real estate, and selling off his business ventures.
Perhaps that is the example that the United States government is following. With all the debt the it has accumulated, the U.S. may opt to sell off its assets. When Napoleon was the leader of France, he sold America the Louisiana territory to finance his debt. We could sell it back to France for a couple trillion.
Then we could sell Florida back to Spain for, well with the beaches and Disney World, a couple trillion. We could sell California to Mexico since the mexicans pretty much own it already. A couple trillion would be a fair deal.
Since Michael Jackson had converted to Islam, we could sell him, his records, and his family to Iran. Oh wait, he’s dead. Dig him up!
Then we could sell our nukes to North Korea.
So with so many people concerned about the national debt, is this idea a great idea? Or is it the greatest idea?
This is the “American Dream”.
One of the more not dumb financial moves that Michael Jackson had made was the life insurance policy he left for his children that may not even be his. His three children were left about 100 unreleased tracks that were to be released sometime after his death. Sounds like a source for the financial fountain the Jackson’s are looking for.
Disclaimer: If Michael Jackson comes back in seven years like Tupac, let it be known that the Sarconomist boldly made this prediction, July 3, 2009.
Next weeks’ topic: Bernie Madoff?
No comments:
Post a Comment