Conservatives in general, and tea partiers in particular have decided that anything that even smells like socialism is evil, and must be protested vigorously. However, they seem to have overlooked a bastion of corporate socialism in the US. Why aren’t they protesting this? Are they closet socialism fans?
I am talking (of course) about the National Football League.
The NFL, socialist? Why, football is as American as apple pie. Isn’t it? How could it be socialist?
Here’s how:
- Salaries are not driven by free-market tenets. Instead, there is both a “salary cap” and a “salary floor” that requires the individual NFL franchises to spend the same amount on player salaries each year. Where’s the competition for players?
- The Supreme Court has ruled that corporate money is free speech, but in the case of the NFL, the franchises are prohibited from using using their money in order to hire better players. In other words, the whole game is rigged!
- Even worse, the teams cannot hire whomever they want. There is a socialist “draft” that gives the highest picks to the weakest teams. What kind of system punishes winners and rewards losers? How can we expect to compete in the Olympics with commie pinko athletics programs like this?
- Not just the player salaries are run in a socialist manner. The owners of the franchises divide up television revenue equally (also known as “each according to their need”).
Ironically, it is the players and the owners who are trying to tear down this blatantly socialist system, when it is the fans who should be protesting this. The owners are complaining that they are paying players too much, and want to change the formula, but the players are not willing to change the formula unless they can see the owner’s financial records. As a result salaries are going to shoot up this year, and there is every probability of a lockout next year by the owners.
So there will be no football. But if that is the price we have to pay to fight socialism, it will be worth it.
8 Comments
Major League Baseball doesn’t have a salary cap or floor, and the big money is in the local revenues (not the national TV contracts), giving them a completely imbalanced financial system. Shocker, the Yankees, with baseball’s highest payroll, won the World Series last year. I’m a Padres fan, so I get to see their entire payroll less than that of the Yankees’ highest paid player plus 1/2 the next.
I like capitalism, but *within* a major sport, there has to be socialism to keep the competitive balance. Ironically, the NFL, with the most socialism within its sport, has had the most financial success, most diverse list of champions and highest TV ratings, which then completes the financial cycle.
In the socialist NFL, it actually takes the best scouts of talent and the best coaches to win.
Wait, when did US government run NFL? I thought the government has nothing to do with it.
If it is not run by government, but association of teams and stakeholders, then it is not socialism (from government point of view). Does US law prohibit a rival league with different laws? I do not think so.
Why would anti-socialism people would object to a private entity doing its business the way it wants? Anti-socialism people do not go to families and tell them how they should they give their children allowances, which could be of any nature.
Hassan: Look up “sarcasm” in the dictionary.
Hassan makes a good point. As a child, my allowances were 3 meals a day (when we could afford it), a warm bed to share with my sisters, and a roof over my head. Of course, if we had a capitalist household, I would probably have had to learn to live with sleeping on the floor since I spent more time reading than doing household chores.
This is ironic simply because teamwork is socialism. A group of people working together towards a common goal. You guys make me laugh!
Socialism is only a problem when there is no choice. We do have choice with leagues, though it is a little complicated because of the mass media, etc.
Because people want to “socialize”, we shun smaller/newer leagues. It is simply because we have these national sports leagues that we can have something to talk about when dealing with people who we may otherwise have nothing in common with.
Having no interest in any professional sports, puts a guy at a social disadvantage.
On the other side of the coin, the obsession with sports puts the entire country at a political disadvantage. We don’t have nearly enough experience at truly understanding other political points of view, and then agreeing to disagree without animosity.
Having said that, I would reaffirm that national socialism is legalized theft. State socialism is nearly as bad, but you may move and retain your individual rights in another state. National socialism is totalitarianism.
David, I assume you are aware that the term “Nazi Party” was a nickname for the National Socialist Party. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialism