A few years ago, $400 million dollar Qwest Field was completed. It is home to the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise and now Seattle Sounders FC (soccer).
5 miles away by car, on the shore of Lake Washington, sits Husky Stadium. Plans are underway for its $300 million renovation.
The Washington Huskies play 5 - 6 games per year at Husky Stadium. On Saturdays.
The Seattle Seahawks play 10 games a year at Qwest Field, on Sundays.
Meanwhile, facing a $6 Billion shortfall, the state is contemplating more than a billion dollars in cuts to our already woefully underfunded education system.
This country is bankrupt, 10 trillion in debt, yet Seattle needs to have two multi-hundred million dollar football stadiums that seat roughly 70,000 each, five miles apart.
Hundreds of years from now, when they analyze and deconstruct the causes of the demise of America, this is the sort of excess they are going to point to by way of example.
From War and Peace:
It is now clear to us what, in the year 1812, was the cause of the destruction of the French army. No one will dispute that the cause of the destruction of Napoleon's French forces was, on the one hand, their advance late in the year, without preparations for a winter march, into the depths of Russia, and, on the other hand, the character that the war took on with the burning of Russian towns and the hatred of the foe aroused in the Russian people. But then not only did no one foresee (what now seems obvious) that this was the only way that could lead to the destruction of an army of eight hundred thousand men, the best in the world and led by the best of generals, in conflict with a twice weaker Russian army, inexperienced and led by inexperienced generals, not only did no one foresee this, but all efforts on the part of the Russians were constantly aimed at hindering the one thing that could save Russia, and, on the part of the French, despite Napoleon's experience and so-called military genius, all efforts were aimed at extending as far as Moscow by the end of summer, that is, at doing the very thing that was to destroy them.
– Leo Tolstoy
I fear we have already and irreversibly overextended, as did Napoleon, with our two never-ending wars and massive accumulation of debt that have stretched our military and financial institutions to the breaking point.
I suspect that the efforts on part of the Obama Administration to save the banks, and save Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan and maybe even Mexico from becoming failed states, although completely necessary and seemingly the only plausible courses of action, are prolonging and perhaps even making certain the inevitable: the demise of the United States. In fact it has already to no minor extent occurred. Our financial institutions and wars have failed.
With even more debt and deft political maneuvering, Obama may be able to keep us afloat for a while, just long enough for the people who advocated all the policies that brought us to this brink to pin the looming catastrophe on him.
Indeed, the downfall has surely happened already. It is a fete de compli. The wars are at the same time perpetual and unsustainable, yet sustain them we will. America is financially, militarily and ideologically bankrupt. We have lost. Bin Laden won. He did exactly what he set out to do: suckered America into fiscal ruin and rendered us impotent to carry out an imperialistic and/or militaristic agenda.
I can't wait for football season.