March 31, 2007

The NFL: Socialism for Capitalists?


Miss Laura at The Daily Kos highlights an op-ed by Derrick Z. Jackson in today's Boston Globe entitled "Football Socialism":

Enter the National Football League. This week, it agreed to revamp what is arguably the most successful form of socialism in the United States. It made some adjustments to its revenue sharing plan. The league's teams, which currently number 32, have shared equally in national television revenues going back to the early 1960s. The Mara family of the New York Giants and George Halas of the Chicago Bears realized that it had to be done to give tiny cities like Green Bay a chance to field competitive teams. Halas even once advocated a new stadium for the arch-rival Packers.

Four and a half decades later, the Chicago Tribune wrote that the decision to share revenues was "the single most important reason the NFL enjoys unmatched prosperity" today and has become the nation's top spectator sport. Shared prosperity means more teams with a legitimate chance to win the title. More competitive teams mean more fans.

What a peculiar sort of socialism we have here: From each capitalist according to his ability, to each capitalist according to his needs! MissLaura says that the US should follow the NFL's lead here.

I'm sure that Levitra DeShill, spokesperson for Billionaires for Bush would agree.




Corporations are People Too
Originally uploaded by Lindsay Beyerstein.


Posted by abostick at March 31, 2007 02:07 PM
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