Rush Limbaugh and Alex Rodriguez have two things in common.

News comes today that Rush Limbaugh is finished. The sponsors have finally pulled the plug on him.

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/29/rush_limbaughs_finished_with_or_without_cumulus/ 

"Cumulus Media, the second-largest broadcast radio station owner in the country, may drop Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity from its stations, according to Politico’s Dylan Byers. Limbaugh and Hannity are the two highest-rated right-wing talk radio hosts in the country. Byers says they currently air on “more than 40″ Cumulus-owned channels (in markets that include New York City). Limbaugh is highly rated but maybe not that profitable, especially since the boycott took off. 
 ...Whether Limbaugh ends up parting ways with Cumulus or whether this entire Politico article is part of one side’s negotiating tactics almost makes no difference. Limbaugh will remain on the radio in most of the country, with millions of listeners. In a month he may still announce that his contract with Cumulus has been renewed. But however this shakes out, it will still be the case that the Limbaugh Era is over."

Also in the news, it appears Alex Rodriguez will be suspended for the rest of this season and all of the next. This effectively ends his career as well.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/eye-on-baseball/22924166/report-arod-offered-deal-to-sit-out-1314-avoid-lifetime-ban 

 "A-Rod is, in fact, facing a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball due to what is reportedly "voluminous evidence" in connection to the Biogenesis scandal. MLB is, however, offering a deal. If A-Rod takes his medicine now and doesn't fight a suspension, he'll be suspended for the rest of this season and all of next season. That would mean A-Rod could return to the Yankees in 2015. The report indicates MLB wants to hear back from A-Rod on the matter by Monday."

In reality, both of them have been finished for a while now. Limbaugh's numbers and listeners have been dropping sharply for a couple of years now and A-Rod was benched last year in the playoffs and hasn't played a game all year due to injuries.
But while their careers are over, their lives and futures are all set. 
Lets look at these two, and see how similar they are. And how they did it.


1. They both gamed the system.

One took drugs to get there. The other ranted, lied and pandered to the disenfranchised and well-to-do to do it. Neither really did it the old fashioned way. With hard work. 
And why should they? When you can earn hundreds of millions of dollars by cheating and/or calling people names, then there is very little incentive to work hard for your success. That is the new American way. Many Americans tried buying homes this way, but that didn't work out so well when the boom turned bust. Buying your home with money you don't have and never will doesn't work nearly as well as taking performance enhancing drugs to get a huge contract or calling people names to get sponsors to pay you multi-millions. If you are going to cheat, you better learn how to do it well. These two have perfected it.

Here are the facts. How they both got rich.

According to a 2001 article in U.S. News & World Report, Limbaugh had an eight-year contract, at the rate of $31.25 million a year. In 2007, Limbaugh earned $33 million. On July 2, 2008, Matt Drudge reported that Limbaugh signed a contract extension through 2016 that is worth over $400 million, breaking records for any broadcast. 

-from  Wikipedia 

He got that by going on radio and bashing the Democrats and anything they did. When that wasn't good enough anymore, he went after women and minorities. If it becomes popular to bash someone to get rating, Limbaugh is on it. Before he did that, he bounced around from station to station, barely able to keep a job. But he figured it out. Bashing works very well.
 
Rodriguez became a free agent after the 2000 season. He eventually signed with the Texas Rangers, who had fallen to last in their division in 2000. The contract he signed was at the time the most lucrative contract in sports history: a 10-year deal worth $252 million. The deal was worth $63 million more than the second-richest baseball deal.


On November 15, 2007, the New York Yankees and Rodriguez agreed on the "basic framework" of a 10-year, $275 million contract that would have him playing until he is 42. The contract, finalized December 13, includes various multimillion dollar incentives for breaking career home run milestones.


-from  Wikipedia 

While A Rod was a very good player while he was on Seattle, before he cashed in with Texas, he is on record to having used performance enhancing drugs to get to that next level. As long as he performed, teams were very happy to make him the richest player ever to play baseball. And he was happy to cheat and take their money.


Now, once the glamor boys of their professions, they are both loathed.
And they are both rich and won the lottery of crime pays in America.
They have taught us that in the good old USA, along with the hedge fund managers, derivative traders and the like that hard work doesn't really matter anymore. Cheating and finding a shortcut to success is the way to go these days if you want the spoils of society.

Rush Limbaugh and Alex Rodriguez have two things in common. They both cheated the system and they both got rich beyond belief because of it. 
And now, they are both finished. And probably both don't care.