Titus Pullo

I've been saying this about Major League Baseball for some time. It's good to see this analogy acknowledged, mainstream.

Is the NFL model not socialism? Is baseball not free market capitalism? Which league is healthier?

Real Time with Bill Maher: New Rules last Friday

Please avoid the obligatory shift to "yeah? well which league would you rather get PAID to be a player inz!?" This is about the business model overall.

DarrylS

Might have proved to be an interesting discussion, but they pulled the video...

__________________
"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

Titus Pullo

here ya go...

Bill Maher New Rules, NFL SOCIALISM, January 28, 2011 - Kick! Making Politics Funny - A liberal dose of political comedy

Even takes a dig at the Jets

Wolfpack

I absolutely agree the NFL model is far superior to baseball's. But I hope no one is absurd enough to try and draw some sort of societal conclusion from that. It would be pretty ridiculous to compare a system which works succesfully for 32 billionaires to all of society at large. (I didn't watch the video but if Maher is trying to make that point then it is further evidence that the man is a complete moron and an utter tool).

That comparison is laughable for one very simple reason: The NFL owners are not competitors. Yes, they compete on the field but Jerry Jones is not trying to drive other franchises out of business. Bob Kraft doesn't want the SD Chargers or the SF 49ers to go bankrupt.

Titus Pullo

And yet the baseball elites DO want to keep other franchises down. DUCY? It is in their best interest to price smaller teams right out of the market.

The capitalistic model IS one of profit-based competition, to hell with the health of the industry as a whole. You've just underlined the point made in the video (that, you know, .. you didn't actually watch )

Real World

Video is no longer there.

The problem I have with the comparrison people make between the two leagues is that their schedule and revenue structures are completely different. The NFL gets the bulk of it's revenue from it multi-billion national TV deal, and it only plays 16 games per team per season. Teams don't sell local broadcasting rights as is the case with baseball. The overall structure of the leagues, as well as the revenue stream, makes a direct comparrison very difficult. None of this is to say that baseballs framework isn't flawed. It's just not fair to directly relate the two. MLB is more similar to the NBA & NHL. The NFL is truly unique in it how it operates.

BTW, Bill Maher is a Libertarian.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

Real World

BTW Titus, would I be wrong to assume through this thread that you are a socialist? Or maybe that you prefer socialism to captialism?

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

Wolfpack

Uh, no they don't. The NY Yankees don't want the KC Royals to go out of business. You're confusing a desire to beat them on the field with the desire to see them go under.
You're misrepresenting my words, and then responding to what you're pretending I've said instead of what I actually said.

What you fail to realize is that Bob Kraft and Jerry Jones and Art Rooney (etc) are business partners. They're not business competitors. That's why using terms like socialism and capitalism is stupid. I didn't watch the video so I don't know what Maher said, but if he tried to make some sort of correlation between the NFL (32 billioniares working together) and society, then he's an even bigger moron that I already knew he was.

Titus Pullo

But then, I didn't say that at all, now did I?

Wolfpack

I didn't say you did, now did I?

If the NFL was truly socialist, then they would take their profits and send some to MLB, the NBA, and the NHL. And when they start doing that, then I will gladly adopt socialist policies in my life. Heck, I'll even start going to rallies.

Anything else saying the NFL is socialist the same way societies are socialist is simply the ramblings of people determined to demonstrate how little they understand economics.