America has more than its fair share of theme parks, with the Disney and Six Flags parks being the primary purveyors of amusements for all ages. But for the adults, theres one destination: Las Vegas, or as some call it, Sin City. The Strip hosts some of the grandest and most opulent casinos ever built by man, with themes ranging from cityscapes (Paris, New York, New York, The Venetian) to history (Luxor, Caesars Palace) to fantasy (Excalibur, Treasure Island) to entertainment (Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock) just sheer extravagance (Aria, The Bellagio, The Mirage.) With a gambling and drinking age set to 21, the town primarily caters to adults, with a few token amusements for those parents who might be toting along their kids. And with Los Angeles just an hour away by plane, the town has become a magnet for the Hollywood elite. The city still serves as the primary gambling spot for America despite the explosion of casino gambling run on American Indian reservations and the (currently failing) Atlantic City experiment.
5. Getting Rich
The 19th century author Horatio Alger was famous for his juvenile novels about how someone started off poor and destitute and through grit and determination made their way in the world. In todays America, that dream still lives on, but television is the medium. Most news channel stations run a stock ticker under their broadcasts. Reality shows tout the lifestyles of the rich and famous, or show how entrepreneurs refurbish old items or houses to sell for a profit. And every time one of the national lotteries reaches above the $200 million mark, video segments appear on the number of people buying tickets hand over fist. However, a reasoned discussion on the giant disparity between the haves (the 1-percenters) and the have-nots (the 99-percenters) is reviled in the corporate media as class warfare, as John Oliver brilliantly pointed out in a segment on his HBO show last week.
