Have been checking out the efforts of the JIDF to squash the “Kill A Jew” day events that have been popping up on Facebook.
There was one a few days ago that the organization was successful in getting taken down. Another one popped up two days later to take its place. It looks like it’s the same people trying to get a rise but the general bottom line is the same. In addition to all the great content and information on Facebook, there is a lot of antisemitism and hate speech against ethnic, religious and gender orientation minorities. Facebook does what it can to keep it in check when made aware of the problem within the inherent flaws of user-based self-reporting systems. There however, is simply so much more of the hatred than there are employees at Facebook to monitor it.
I try to take most of this crap in stride as there are idiots everywhere. The most troubling aspect of “the day” is not that some anti-Semitic idiot would put it up but that so many are willing to play along and incite the hatred in the page commentary. Strong evidence that it is much more than a silly page put up by a moron. It is a stark reminder that Facebook is not just a place for friends to connect and share information. It is a venue for those of like mind in hatred of not only Jews but any minority group to take that message, find those who agree and take hatred viral.
I wonder if they will talk about that in the new Facebook movie, The Social Network. I doubt it. People are more interested In Mark Zuckerberg’s quirks and dalliances than they are about real issues affecting all of us in that network. That’s to be expected. People want to be entertained. I hope it’s more entertaining than Kill A Jew Day.
Actor Nic Cage is reportedly in dire financial straights. It appears to be a case of yet another starcaught upin a celebrity cash crunch with a new but sadly familiar story in the Hollywood ranks of stars either unable or unwilling to take an interest in the mechanics of their finances and paying a heavy price.
Nic is not the only star to go down “the road to financial ruin” Many a movie star has fallen victim to bad investments bad advice and down right fraud because they detach themselves from the fruits of their labor.
Facing bankruptcy, former Johnny Carson sidekick, the late Ed McMahon went public regarding the financial miscues leading to the possible foreclosure on his $4.8 million mansion. He owed more than $600,000 on the mortgage, some $750,000 to American Express, and around $1.5 million overall.
“Being Ed McMahon was an expensive proposition,” David Fisher, the co-author of McMahon’s autobiography, told the Huffington Post. Fisher recalled watching as McMahon walked through hotel lobbies doling out money to anyone who tipped his cap. In a Larry King Live interview, McMahon’s wife Pam McMahon explained, “Because you’re a celebrity, people think you have a lot more than you have. And you always want to take great care of all of your friends and your family and everybody, and you do …. ”
It’s hard to have context or sympathize with troubled finances off such lofty perches. Did anyone really feel sorry for singer MC Hammer after he declared bankruptcy in 1996? When he filed the paperwork, we learned that his living expenses far exceeded his annual income of $33 million: Hammer owned a $12 million house and reportedly had a staff of 250. (Yes, 250.) Who wouldn’t love to see that spreadsheet?
And the list of celebrities and athletes who’ve gone bust goes on: Michael Jackson, Kim Basinger, Suge Knight, Dorothy Hamill, Burt Reynolds, Mike Tyson, Anna Nicole Smith ….
Why is it that celebrities and pro athletes who seem to have everything can’t seem to control anything related to finances? They make millions, but they live paycheck to paycheck. Most of them couldn’t tell you how much they have in their checking account. Many have never written a check or seen a bank statement. From time to time, they go broke, but don’t even know it until their agent or business manager tells them.
The public perception is that these high-paid celebrities and athletes are completely out of touch with basic money management skills. Is that perception accurate? I spoke with several professional athletes and Hollywood celebrities to find out.
“Most celebrities I know do not manage their own finances,” the actor Ed Begley Jr. told me. Begley’s been around—best known for his role as Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the television series St. Elsewhere, he currently hosts a reality show on HGTV called Living With Ed on Planet Green—so he’s seen actors enter and exit, financially speaking. “I can count on one hand the celebrities that I know who write their own checks,” he says. “I know many who sign their own checks, but I’m talking about doing it all yourself on Quicken or QuickBooks, as I do. I actually enjoy it.”
Celebrities, Begley says, need to to do more with their money than just spend it. “At the very least, make sure that no one other than you can sign a check for over $500. That would save a lot of the heartache you hear about with folks losing all their dough to someone they blindly turned over their fortune to.”
Celebrities can be especially vulnerable, the actor Armand Assante (Gotti, American Gangster) told me, because not only do they frequently make enormous sums of money, but the perception that they handle it badly can attract greedy hangers-on. “There’s a general perception that people in the arts and entertainment industry have little business acumen,” Assante says. “They are therefore easy prey to financial exploitation.”
I asked Assante how he handled his finances.
“I’ve always had good instincts in business,” he said. “I have very little interest in it for its own sake, so I have chosen people I entrust important decisions with. That’s where your instinct has to reign. Most of the people I deal with are impeccable with excellent business sense and do superbly for me because they’re trustworthy, reliable and independent in their decisions. Sadly however, even the best-intentioned of financial advisors fall prey to others if profit is the moral motive of the moment.”
Ultimately, Armand says, “one has to assume total accountability.”
The financial landscape is no less bleak in professional sports. I’ve seen estimates projecting that 50 percent of all NBA athletes live paycheck to paycheck—this in a sport where the minimum salary is currently $442,000 for a rookie—and that over 60 percent of NBA athletes are broke within five years of retirement. There’s no reason to expect that the numbers are much different in other sports.
“It’s hard to argue with the widespread perception that athletes and celebrities are the worst managers of their money,” says Patrick Johnson, a former wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. Part of the problem, he says, is that they then turn to advisors whom they shouldn’t trust. “Exposure to so many unethical advisors paves the way for what eventually happens. Any advisor that is worth anything should care about what happens to his client. Many of them do not.”
Spending too much, paying insufficient attention to their finances, trusting their money to people whom they haven’t thoroughly vetted ….
Everyone can enjoy a little schadenfreude in seeing overpaid celebrities and their money soon parted. But are their financial mistakes really so different from ours?
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Former NBA stars Antoine Walker and Derrick Coleman are Broke. The Real Deal, Evander Holyfield stared into the financial abyss although it appears he is getting his finances under control. Just a few of the high profile athlete having to scale back his lifestyle to the level to which you have I have been accustomed. The list is long and distinguished. Why is it that athletes who seem to have everything are often completely unable to control anything related to finances?
We all played our violins to death when we heard of Latrell Sprewell’s financial troubles. On Halloween 2004, Sprewell, who was in the final season of a $62-million five-year contract with the New York Knicks, said he was insulted by the Minnesota Timberwolve’s offer of a contract extension that was reportedly worth between $27 million and $30 million for three seasons. Sprewell stated, “I’ve got my family to feed.” That quote become a national moniker for the public perception of athletes as greedy, out of touch individuals. Apparently, Sprewell still can’t feed his family. His yacht was repossessed and his home faced foreclosure.
While there is certainly the stereotype of the financially irresponsible NBA athlete, no professional sport is immune.
Let’s take a look at some high profile athlete financial sob stories over the years:
1. No one my age can forget Jack”The Ripper” Clark , star player for the Boston Red Sox who filed for bankruptcy in 1992 in the middle of his second year of a three-year, $8.7 million contract with Boston; he listed $6.7 million in debts. Jack was a master of financial planning and prudent asset acquisition. His bankruptcy petition listed assets such as 18 automobiles, including a 1990 Ferrari that cost $717,000 and three 1992 Mercedes Benz cars costing between $103,000 and $143,000. He owed money on 17 of the automobiles and was liable for about $400,000 in Federal and state taxes. He had also lost about $1 million in a drag-racing venture. Sounds like Jack would have been more at home in the NBA. You can read about it here
2. Johnny Unitas, Hall of Fame quarterback for the Baltimore Colts, filed for bankruptcy in 1991 citing numerous failed business ventures in his petition These failed bits included bowling alleys, land deals and restaurants. He filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991.
3. Mike Tyson The name speaks for itself. Mike’s bankruptcy was highly publicized. Despite earning hundreds of millions during his boxing career, Mike kept it simple. His bankruptcy petition simply stated: ” I am unable to pay my bills”. According to federal court records, his liabilities totaled about $27 million. You can read that story here.
4. Dorothy Hamill, the women’s figure-skating gold medalist in the 1976 Winter Games, filed for bankruptcy after a series of financial setbacks. Hamill said she has experienced financial setbacks as a result of poor financial investment advice and management.
These are just a few of many athletes’ tales of woe. It is not a phenomenon limited to professional sports — just ask M.C Hammer. Prior to his declaring bankruptcy, it was made public that his day to day living expenses far exceeded his income of $33 million. If I am going to veer off to celebrities, I certainly have to mention Kim Basinger and Michael Jackson and Nicholas Cage.
When the Toronto Starran an article alleging that a shocking 60 percent of NBA athletes “go broke” five years after retiring, did we not all pull out that very tiny violin we have reserved for such occasions? The NBA players union and the NBA have both disputed that assertion. The article goes on to talk about all the people taking advantage of and “scamming” these athletes. While I have no doubt there is truth to this, I can also understand how such a generalization would make the NBA uncomfortable. It leaves you with the impression that 60 percent of NBA players are not only financially inept but also idiots in general. This is simply not true. While good business sense is often lacking, I view many of their mistakes as being more mistakes of trust, credibility and lack of life experience than anything else. Smart, busy people who can afford it, hire people with targeted expertise to help them. This allows them to focus on their expertise. Sometime mistakes are made and bad judgment is used in who we hire and hang out with. That is not unique to the NBA or professional sports. This happens to everyone. That is life. It happens all the time. It just does not make front page when we screw up. If there is any question at all as to how badly we as the general public screw up, just look at the personal bankruptcy filing statistics.
In order to get a perspective from the inside, I contacted Jordan Woy, a highly respected sports agent and a principal in the sports marketing/management firm of Schlegel Sports. Jordan has represented numerous high profile athletes
Here is what Jordon had to say:
I think there are several reasons why so many athletes “go broke”. First, whether it is a lottery winner, an athlete or a star entertainer, if they are not equipped with the knowledge on how to make and save money they are in trouble. When they didn’t earn it through disciplined business practices and they don’t have those skills they usually go through it quickly. Most lottery winners or athletes make a great deal of money in a short period of time. They start spending it on things that only go down in value (cars, jewelry, partying, entourage, etc) and start to evaporate the money they do have. They can carry this off until they stop earning big money. This is when the trouble starts. It is hard to believe that MC Hammer, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and now Ed McMahon are broke. These are people who earned hundreds of millions over time and it disappeared. Lavish spending and entourages were probably the downfall for the first three for sure.
Most athletes play for four to ten years if they are lucky. After they pay taxes (can be 40 to 50%) and agent fees and buy their first homes, cars, outfits, jewelry (plus, cars, clothes and jewelry for friends and family), they are left with very little. When they first “strike it rich” all of their longtime friends and family expect help. Most athletes feel obligated to help everyone out at first then they wise up. They also want to keep up with their teammates. If someone buys a Bentley, they have to buy one; if someone buys a $75,000 watch, they have to buy one to keep up the appearance. Then, of course, when the career ends and they are still living in a multi million dollar house, driving 3 expensive cars (and insurance), traveling in private planes and taking Limo’s when they go out on the town, reality sets in. The money dries up very quickly.
However, if athletes educate themselves, learn money management skills and make smart, safe investments along the way, they are usually in very good shape. After representing athletes for over 20 years, we call this our “life plan”. We take out clients on working vacations in the off season to places like Las Vegas, Cancun and on a cruise to the Bahamas to learn business networking. We have people from industries such as real estate, oil and gas, financial planning, credit repair, asset protection/estate planning, etc come to educate the players and their wives so they can learn about these business and also determine if they are interested in any of these industries for life after sports. One of the financial planners who comes always says most people die coming down from Mt. Everest not going up. The goal is for these athletes to get to their Mt. Everest AND to get down safely.
So, what do you think? Are the financial mistakes that athletes make any different than your mistakes or mine? They are certainly mistakes made with a higher downside. When we hear these stories are we just unable to comprehend that someone could have that much money and spend it all? Can we learn lessons on how to live our lives from their highly publicized financial gaffes? Do we even care at all?
With all due respect to Latrell Sprewell, we have our own families to feed…
Today I took a trip to Atlanta, Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving. Atlanta is an East Texas town of about 6500 people. As I drove through “downtown” Atlanta it was clear that that any resemblance to its namesake in Georgia was in name only. It was named after Atlanta, Georgia because many of the early settlers were from that area.
It was a typical one street downtown as I have seen in other small Texas towns such as Olney, Boyd and Archer City where the classic movie The Last Picture Show was filmed. Streets like you would see in any “Route 66” town across America. As is standard in small Texas towns, there is a barber, candy shop, bank, hardware store, bakery, sporting goods store, few antique stores, a Dairy Queen and of course a huge, bustling, Walmart. The staples of life that can be cut and pasted to countless small towns across America.
“Atlanta exemplifies small town America. Warm smiles and warmer greetings reflect a friendly and progressive community.”
What Atlanta and other small towns all over the country never envisioned when they were formed (Atlanta was founded in 1872) was that small town America would one day be synonymous with the arrival of Walmart.
Today in Atlanta as I lay in a turkey coma on the couch watching The Dallas Cowboys dismantle their opponent in their new stadium dubbed “The Death- Star” I casually mentioned that it was sad that there were so many boarded up stores. Out of the depths of my turkey fog I heard a voice in the room yell out”
Walmart Did This To Us!
It then occurred to me. Many in small town America may look at the arrival of Walmart as the invasion of Evil Empire and its own type of economic Death-Star
Darth Vader, who was unmasked many years ago, didn’t initially destroy these towns with his death ray. He arrived with the promise of peace and prosperity. The Death -Star then set down in the middle of town, touting every possible convenience a person could want at cheaper prices, with greater diversity and quantity. Unfortunately no Jedi Knights ever came to the rescue. They were to busy fueling up their Starfighters at discount prices.
Now, instead of seeing the sign “Victory Tonight And Free Haircut Tomorrow” if the high school football team or basketball team wins, we see, “Going Out of Business Liquidation Sale.”
How can the “It’s A Wonderful Life” dream of small town America possibly compete with the neon lit entrance to the Death Star just a block away? Instead we see “The Last Picture Show” at the local theater just before it closes for good to be transformed into a Walgreens. The residents of Atlanta, Texas leave the theater and disappear into the Death Star never to be heard from again by the local merchants.
Have been checking out the efforts of the JIDF to squash the “Kill A Jew” day events that have been popping up on Facebook.
