February 22, 2016 08:24 AM UTC

Socialism and the NFL

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• by: Tom Phillips

Socialism:  a political and economic theory of social organization where the wellbeing of the community, as a whole, is more important than the wellbeing (wealth) of an individual corporation or person.

A good example of socialism in action today is the NFL.  In the NFL, the wealth and wellbeing of all the teams, taken as a whole, is more important than the wealth and wellbeing of any individual team.

Most people think that each team has a clear financial incentive to win.  More wins should mean more fans, more tickets sold, more viewers on TV and more money flowing into the team coffers.  Most people think the NFL is governed by the unbridled, raw meat, cutthroat rules of capitalism.  Win or die trying.

Not so.  Turns out the NFL equally shares its nearly $5 billion dollars of TV revenue among all it teams, winners and losers.  It also shares ticket and merchandise revenue.  Socialism in action.  How else would an economically weak city like Detroit compete with more prosperous New England?  If the NFL was purely capitalistic, Detroit would have been left out to dry long ago, much like the people of Flint.

Socialism in the NFL keeps all the teams on a more even playing field, so that all the money and all the best players don’t flow to just one or two teams at the top while the teams in economically depressed cities wither and die.  Who would tune in every week to watch the same old rich and powerful teams slaughter the same old poor and weak teams over and over again?  Nobody.  Socialism keeps the NFL, as a whole, healthy, exciting and competitive.  If the NFL was purely capitalistic, it would have been history long, long ago.