Financial vandalism: Human measure in the age of social media

Microsoft bought Nokia for $7.2 billion and Skype for $8.5 billion. Google spent on $3.2 billion on Nest and $12.5 billion on Motorola. Facebook splashed $1 billion on Instagram, $2 billion on Oculus and $19 billion on Whatsapp. 

Brands like Starbucks, Red Bull and Oreo have well beyond 35 million followers on Facebook each, a platform we tend to call social media. Each year, brands spend $450 billion on advertising, while Mark Woerde rightfully mentions that only $6 billion would bring malaria under control.

Cities built 40-story buildings whether their citizens like the view or not, and the world’s richest 85 people have more wealth than the poorest 3.5 billion.

k0AFT
Brazilian favelas showing the shrill contrast between wealth and poverty.

 

Bayern Munich’s president Uli Hoeneß evaded $40 million in taxes. Gareth Bale was sold to Real Madrid for $100 million, while the top Formula 1 drivers earn near $30 million each year.

Meanwhile, fans of F1 are flown in by cattle-class to get a glimpse of the cars from the distance called General Admission. As one reader on Autosport.com mentions:
“You’ve got to be in the aristocracy class to buy an actual seat.”

Arsenal fans
Arsenal fans protesting against the $1650 dollar price for a seasonal ticket, by far the highest in the English Premier League.

 

Sport’s key players have become commodities fit for television, detached from the fans. If there ever was a glue, it’s now gone.

The theme here is the lack – or complete absence – of human measure, in the age of social media.

We need to ask ourselves whether we like this financial vandalism.
I know I don’t. We’re all poorer because of it, even if it makes men like Ivan Gazidis richer.