The Tea Party activist and libertarian-conservative in Minnesota takes issue with the liberal comic's claim that socialism is what makes the NFL great: "Let’s start with what may seem a nitpick. The NFL could never be accurately described as socialist, because socialism is state control of the means of production, and the NFL is not a state. This is not a semantic quibble, nor a failure to recognize an analogy. Maher’s specific claim is that the NFL is socialist, and its socialism is why it works. Strictly speaking, if we care at all about the actual meaning of words, his claim is dead on arrival. But that’s the boring argument."
He continues his commentary: "Maher fails to address the single most relevant factor in the NFL’s business model – motive. Why does the NFL share revenue between teams, make the Super Bowl champions pick last in the next draft, and otherwise take measures to ensure competitiveness throughout the league? It does so in order to craft an exciting product which it then takes to a free market to sell. The NFL’s business model is not in place to fulfill some ideological compulsion, to be 'fair' for fairness’s sake. The NFL shares revenue to maximize profit! The NFL is a business which operates within an economy, not an economy in and of itself. The reason its business model works is because it meets a discretionary demand in the market. In order for people to indulge that discretionary demand, they must have discretionary income. In order to have discretionary income, they must produce something which carries enough value in the market to more than meet their basic needs."
More: "If we conceded to run the U.S. economy in a socialist fashion, convinced the NFL business model translated to sound macroeconomic theory, we would quickly discover the flaw in Maher’s thinking. Unlike the NFL, the U.S. cannot sustain itself by drawing off a larger economy. We actually have to produce things to sustain ourselves, which is another way of saying we must maximize personal profit. So, yes, you do kind of have to laugh at an embarrassingly feeble attempt to craft an argument for socialism out of what is ultimately a capitalistic endeavor. But hey, humor is what you want from a comedian, right?"
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WALTER HUDSON COMMENTARY: Tackling Bill Maher’s "The NFL Is Socialist” Rant
