Tiger Woods: What are the rules for billionaires?

[johnlal]

I thought they could sleep with anybody they wanted to. What good is it to be a billionaire if you can't sleep with whomsoever you choose? :sarcasm:

It doesn't seem to bother people that some people in our society are "entitled" to earn hundreds of millions of dollars more than others. But it kills them if he feels entitled to more sex partners. To me, the money is just as obscene as the sex.

[MH1]

1. America and the world voted for him to be a billionaire

'voted' with their dollars.

That is why any sports star makes such an 'obscene' amount of money - because so many people think it's a-ok to pay as much as they do to see their act.

It is truly democracy at work. (in the case of sports stars and movie stars. not necessarily extendable to all billionaires.)

[Deja Q]

8. "Democracy" my pasty white heiney

Democracy has surprisingly little to do with economics...

[MH1]

19. People pay for what they want

and more people want to see Tiger play golf than want to watch you do whatever you do.

[fasttense]

13. No, we didn't vote for him, he got his money from contracts with large corporations.

The corporations voted for him, not the average stiff. True, some average stiffs buy the products he endorses but what choice do people really have? If you want to buy something let's say Nike shoes that are endorsed by Tiger, do you get to choose Nike shoes endorsed by another golf player?

No, Nike chose Tiger to put a human face on a heartless, soulless corporation. If you like Tiger, you buy Nike shoes. Or if you like Nike shoes you end up buying the Tiger image too. But, you really don't get a choice. The real decision is made by the corporation.

There is no democracy about it.

[MH1]

18. WHY does Tiger's image make money for the corporation?

because people pay to see him play golf.

If no one gave a shit about his golf skills the corporations wouldn't be making him money either.

[Bjorn Against]

23. That still has nothing to do with democracy

Not everyone gets a Nike endorsement, and if the corporation doesn't choose you then people can not vote for you with their dollars.

You can certainly argue that he is a very popular golfer and has made money based on that popularity, but popularity is not the same thing as democracy.

[MH1]

25. Yes and no

People voted for Tiger by supporting the sport of golf and paying to watch him play, before Nike hired him for his endorsement.

You are correct that this is not strictly 'democracy' as commonly defined. I am really making an analogy here. It doesn't take a majority of eligible citizens to elect anyone in our system, any more than it takes a majority of eligible citizens to support Tiger to make him rich. However, more people wanted Tiger to be rich than some other guy, so Tiger gets to be rich.

Personally I'll spend my money on fair trade or 'green' goods before I spend it on golf. That's my 'vote'.

[LARED]

2. Woods earns his money via contractual agreements

There is nothing obscene about it.

His betrayal of his family is obscene, but run of the mill.

[TorchTheWitch]

3. only billionaires cheat on their spouses?

I'll be damned. I had no idea.

[stray cat]

4. Making money is evil? Who has he harmed to make his money?

[hayu_lol]

7. There are no rules...

for billionaires.

[LARED]

9. Obviously you're wrong

Billionaires that make money on their name can't get around the rules that apply to people acting badly.

Can you say Martha Stewart?

[RC]

12. Martha Stewart is a bad example.

She was setup. Made an example of.

[LARED]

27. You missed my point

People like Martha and Tiger Woods only make money because their name brings in dollars. If they tarnish the only thing of value (ie their name) they get in trouble.

[Captain Hilts]

21. Martha Stewart went to jail for dissembling about $40,000. Peanuts.

It wasn't for insider trading. That's what her broker got in trouble for.

[Bluenorthwest]

10. Union members whose picket lines he crossed

were harmed. Tiger has long been on the scab list, and many Union supporters have seen him as the kind of scab that crosses a picket line not to survive, but to make more millions by weakening the collective bargaining power of rank and file union members who need their powerful Union mates to stand and strike. Tiger crossed to make himself richer still.
I have zero love for scabs. Tiger is a scab.

[snagglepuss]

14. Who's he harmed? How about victims of forced labor, rape, and torture on Chevron's Burmese pipeline.

Chevron is underwriting a dictatorship, but Tiger Woods apparently sees them as upstanding corporate partners.

snip

In 2008 Chevron entered a five-year relationship with Tiger Woods's foundation under the guise of philanthropy. But if Woods had a shred of social conscience, this partnership never would have existed.

snip

Chevron has a partnership with Burma's ruling military junta on the country's Yadana gas pipeline project, the single greatest source of revenue for the military, estimated at nearly $5 billion since 2000.

Ka Hsaw Wa, co-founder and executive director of EarthRights International, wrote in an open letter to Woods, "I myself have spoken to victims of forced labor, rape, and torture on Chevron's pipeline--if you heard what they said to me, you too would understand how their tragic stories stand in stark contrast to Chevron's rhetoric about helping communities." Chevron is underwriting a dictatorship, but Tiger Woods apparently sees them as upstanding corporate partners.

Then there is Dubai, site of the first Tiger Woods-designed golf course... It has been called an "adult Disneyland"--complete with unspeakable human rights violations. As Johann Hari wrote in the Independent, it is a city that has been built over the past thirty years by slave labor. Paid foreign laborers work in more than 100-degree heat for less than $3 a day. Dubai also has a reputation as ground zero of the global sex trade. The project cost $100 million, and Woods said nary a word about his benefactor's practices. This is business as usual for Woods who would sooner swallow a five-iron than take anything resembling a political stand.

snip



http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091214/zirin/print

[rurallib]

5. What is scary is that it looks like he is another Ambien victim

and the media gives that little play:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7210741

[TorchTheWitch]

17. that shit needs to be taken off the market

I've never heard of anyone taking it that did not have episodes of sleepwalking and other sleep functioning with no memory of it.

[blonndee]

24. I haven't. Ambien is a godsend for me.

I have chronic insomnia and Ambien has been the only thing that has ever worked to help me fall asleep. I THINK it might be the Ambien CR that tends to cause problems, though I'm not sure. Mine is just the kind that helps you fall asleep, not stay asleep, which has not been much of a problem for me (so far, fingers crossed).

[Texasgal]

26. You've heard of one now.

I take ambien nightly and I have no problems at all. In fact, if it were not for ambien I would have most likely killed someone due to lack of sleep.

[Captain Hilts]

20. Ambien made him step out on his wife with hookers, cocktail waitresses and porn stars?

[rurallib]

28. Of course not.You know that is not what I meant.

[Captain Hilts]

32. I apologize. nt

[izquierdista]

6. Don't make a scene

It would have been all right to crash the car if it was inside the gates and no one could find out. The only reason Cheney's face shot (not on camera, the one with the bird shot) ever got out to the public was that the victim needed to be treated. That's why they stay at undisclosed locations with high walls to keep out the riff-raff.

[spanone]

11. doesn't bother me.

[fasttense]

15. I don't have a problem with people collecting excessive wealth because

that is how our capitalist system is set up. But I have a problem with our system because it gives excess wealthy to a few very rich people while letting many other people starve, die of curable diseases or live in the street due to lack of shelter.

The system is inherently evil when the wealthy can gain even more wealth by doing very little productive work, while people who do productive work must work five times harder to merely survive.

The game is rigged.

[snagglepuss]

16. Exactly. No one makes that kind of money with clean hands.

Woods has entered into partnerships with numerous companies that employ slave labour and destroy the environment but that apparently is okay to DUers because he got his wealth via sports and sports heros do no wrong. :puke:

[Altoid_Cyclist]

22. The Dubai deal is when I stopped giving him the benefit of the doubt.

There is no way that he could have been oblivious to the use of slave labor in the building of the course and the palaces and mansions that are part of the whole complex.

He willingly associated himself and his image with one of the more disgusting places on earth. I realized that the respect that I had for him as a golfer just couldn't compete with the harm that he was abetting in Dubai and elsewhere.

How many workers (fairly paid I'm sure :sarcasm:) would be required to build this?

Excerpt of article about The Tiger Woods Dubai:


The project's luxury residences will include 22 palaces, 75 mansions and 100 villas. It is scheduled for completion in 2009.

The desert emirate which is vying to establish itself as a regional centre for tourism features several golf courses which host international tournaments, despite being extremely poor in water resources.

The Tiger Woods Dubai will be part of Dubailand -- an ambitious multi-billion-dollar development that is widely touted as the Middle East's very own Orlando, which is gradually emerging across the desert sands of the booming Gulf emirate.

Rest of Article:

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ighGdZyQBWH-XzDwda1LxCm3sCjQ

[mitchum]

30. That place has always sounded like hell on earth

I'm a hedonist, and even I find the whole idea to be repellent

[treestar]

29. Then he didn't have to get married

Supposedly that involves commitment and fidelity. Nobody forced him to get married.

[Edweird]

31. Here's one: Don't cheat on your wife with a waffle house waitress.

Unless, of course, said waffle house waitress is your missing piece - your soul mate. If you're gonna screw around use some discretion and do it with someone that has as much 'skin in the game' as you. Of course, the real Pro Tip is to not cheat in the first place. Get some counseling. Get a divorce. Whatever.