They're one-in-the same, and that's just not the American way. And that's why on this Memorial Day--a day that's truly ALL-AMERICAN!!!.. I'm going to call out salary caps of any kind as just plain UN-AMERICAN.
I'm not just talking about salary caps in pro sports--I'm going to include the ones proposed by the Obama administration on executive pay as well.
It's very simple, really: capitalism. Yes, capitalism is market driven, and what the market will bear you must pay or somebody else will. The upside of capitalism? The epitome of the "American Dream"--where anybody of any class can work hard, work smart, network, and rise to be anything he/she wants to be and earn ka-jillions. The self-made millionaires and billionaires (does Bill Gates come to mind?) are all the proof you need. The downside? Greed. Just look at our financial system and you have all the proof you need there.
Now to salary caps. In pro sports, they're designed to put a drag on salaries, and in return, the owners "share revenue". The key word there is ARTIFICIAL, and that means the market doesn't determine what one earns. And, folks, you can put that in a tux and tails for guys, and a cocktail dress and heels for the gals, but you strip it down and it's still SOCIALISM, and socialism is just plain UN-AMERICAN.
Now, for those of you who say, "But those players earn way too much to play a kids' game.", and "I should earn as much because I work harder than those athletes do.", I counter, "Their pie of earnings is bigger." Put it this way: suppose you're a teacher, and you knew that there was a $10+ billion dollar pie to divy up for teacher pay, and it turned out that you could earn $1-million for your services-- wouldn't you demand you get that million since you know that's the going rate for your services? You bet you would, and don't lie to yourself--you would. If you knew a million dollars is what the market would bear, you'd insist upon it. Well, athletes are no different--but their pie is just bigger, and in large part, it's bigger because we the public keep buying tickets to their events, watching them on TV, and buying the merchandise they pitch.
Now, to the argument that the players are too rich anyhow, I counter with this: Yes, PLAYERS are RICH, but OWNERS are WEALTHY. Big difference. Players have a small window to earn their millions-the average NFL career is 4-years, for instance. Owners mostly use their franchises for play money. And the owners--with those deep pockets--many who lobby Congress to keep the free market from putting a drag on the money they earn in their respective businesses, then want to put an artificial drag on players' salaries so they won't have to pay the true market value for the players' services, and in return, they share the revenue so that teams in smaller markets with a smaller revenue streams can compete with the big behemoths. Well, let's dress it down to this: the salary caps allows the players to save the owners from themselves, and to hell with the free market. Congress and the president tries that with the owners in their businesses? That'd be like watching a slug in salt water. I have no use for anyone--no matter how wealthy and powerful--to play by one set of rules and then have the rest of us play by another. It's not just, and just plain wrong.
Now, if you can't get past the fact that players (and executives) earn money that most of us only dream about, you've got a closed mind and I'm not going to waste my breath on you--go out and run up your credit cards to the max, finance a vehicle you can't afford, and then buy some lottery tickets--you don't understand economics. For the rest of you, consider the alternative: there was an old saying in the old USSR about what one was paid, "They pretend to pay us, so we pretend to work." Sounds like lethargy to me. Well, that's what salary caps do--create lethargy. And lethargy is un-American, and socialism creates lethargy. Need I say more?
Yes. Stand up for the American way. Reflect on the veterans this Memorial Day, and continue work hard, work smart and network--you might earn a million dollars. Unless someone puts a salary cap on you.
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I agree.
ReplyDeleteI follow European soccer closely- probably closer than I do American sports, and the financial disparity between the haves and the have nots are much larger than in the MLB, where cheap owners get rewarded from revenue sharing.
The NFL cap is too restrictive and is a large reason why Emmitt Smith finished his career as a Cardinal, Jerry Rice as a Raider/Seahawk. It is also rigged to guarantee owners make a killing of a profit. The cap is pretty much equal to how much money each team gets from TV contracts alone. Add in ticket sales, sponsorship, etc. and NFL teams are profiting something like 50-60 mill a year.