For Love or Money

I hate Communist scum, it may be all rosy in theory...but can never be practiced. Im a capitalistic person. Open markets, free trade, the invisble hand etc. I'm an economist by nature, I like to analyse things, measure the worth of something through tangible or intangible means (Economics isn't all about money, things can be measured through other means, e.g. time, oppurtunity cost). How much is money really worth? Are you willing to do anything for money? Sure money is important, but it's not essential to happiness...or is it? Let's take a look at the good ol' US of A. The US is a symbol of the free world and capital venture. It's a perfect example of how prosperous a country can be through free trade! Right? Wrong! The US has the highest gun death proportionalitiy in the world, violence is ingrained the culture. Hell they may be the richest country in the world, but they ain't exactly the most peaceful. So is it money or morality? Im an evil dictator (Ferdinand Marcos, see Mr Lane, can anything blow up space?) so the answer is obvious for me... But my God, you don't expect parents to succumb to greed...Over the past year I have heard two stories of parents willing to lease their baby's name for advertising, or brand their baby's clothing. A couple in Pennsylvania has decided to offer branding rights to their newborn child's clothing. Their reasoning: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/30/baby.billboard.ap/index.html?section=cnn_offbeat "I jokingly said to my husband that we should do this on my baby," Hutchison said. "The next day I couldn't get it out of my head." Well whoopteedoo to you, SCUM! Obviously she wants her child Chaswick (this isn't the child real name) to wear Coke branded nappies...."look ma' Chaswick soiled on Coca Cola nappies...mmmm refreshing Coke!" Does this mean every moment in the childs life will be a commercial for the advertiser that has branding rights for the month? "AWWWW! Chaswick said his first word...McDonalds! MMMM I'm loving it!" But this is only the first case I heard, there was another story that disturbed me even more.... http://boards.stratics.com/php-bin/ffxi/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=62774&Main=62774 "When Melissa Heuschkel couldn't decide what to name her fourth child, she turned to the auction site eBay. Earlier this year, the Torrington woman sold the right to name her unborn baby to online casino ***edited*** for $15,500. Golden Palace Benedetto was born at 3:34 a.m. Wednesday at Charlotte Hungerford Hospital." When this kid comes to school "Everybody, meet our new student, Golden Palace!" He's going to get bulled left right and centred for the first 8 years of his schooling life because he is named after a Casino! But hey, I see potential for him to be a pimp daddy when he finishes High School. Golden Palace is such a Mac Daddy name... "The company also has forked over $156 for a giant Frosted Flake and $650,000 to name a new species of monkey discovered in Bolivia" Has the world gone mad? We are naming new species after Online Casinos? Since when scientific intrest has been below commerical gain? So In the US, expect things to happen, big things to happen...You might see sponsored prostitutes "mmm pleasure me with Ron condoms...if it's not ron, its not on" or a wing of the library named "The Burger King Wing" hell you might even see "The Church of Casbah"...