Actual Wasteful Spending

Oh, the week after the Super Bowl. The hangovers; the football-addicted scouring the internet for just-one-last-article about this year's sport before the long, dreary exile into Basketball and Baseball seasons; and the never-late this is all bread and circuses screeds against the Super Bowl's super excesses.

Guys, when Americans get tired of watching the Super Bowl, they'll stop watching it. They'll stop hosting Super Bowl parties, and they'll stop using it as an excuse to hang out with their friends and family. When folks get tired of paying small fortunes for tickets to that game, they'll stop going. When taxpayers stop wanting to subsidize this event, they'll elect new representatives.

Until then, it is the only near-universal American Bacchanalia, a Carnival event for even the most stiff-collared Americans to celebrate a little something. And like all events for mainstream American popular culture, it must be an extravagant, over-the-top spectacle dripping with marketing and product placement. That can get expensive, after all.

Are you not entertained?

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