Master Plot, Step 1

Here at Camp Wachagonadu, we don't spend all our time bashing rich white guys. We also watch college football on TV. That got us thinking.

Who runs college sports? Not the colleges. Not the players. Not the government. As you probably know, it's the NCAA (the National Collegiate Athletic Association), a private non-profit organization. Ostensibly, it promotes fair play among student athletes. It also oversees an industry that handles billions of dollars every year, has millions of customers, and has brand loyalty out the wazoo, all with practically no government oversight.

So why hasn't anybody tried to privatize college football? That would further several goals of the Money Party--show that capitalism works in every situation, reduce the size of government (since many schools are government entities), and deny funds to education.

In a capitalist world, sports teams would be free to hire any player of any age for any amount of money; they would play as often as they liked against whoever agreed to play them; anyone anywhere could start, buy, sell, trade, or dissolve a team. Only the market would limit what the players and the operators could do. In the real world, though, the operators would have to agree (for instance) on schedules with each other, as well as on rules and penalties so that the players could train properly. The NCAA does so by including school sports directors as members, and they help define the rules.

Once they started to coordinate their efforts, the operators could spend all their money on the best players and start playing. After a while, though, the operator with the most money would win most of the games, the public's interest would decline, and attendance would drop. They would need some kind of artificial limit to keep their teams competitive with each other. The NCAA does it by sharing revenue between schools.

Even with revenue sharing, one team could have a better team by hiring more players. They must set a maximum team size and make it tougher for players to even try out. The NCAA does it by setting eligibility requirements.

With their competitive teams, the operators can hold games every week of the year. Except that players would become injured more often. And star players would rotate in and out due to fatigue. They would have to limit the number of games per year, maybe concentrate them during a particular season. The NCAA, of course, sets schedules.

Finally, they'd want to keep another group from forming and cutting into their market. The NCAA claims that it's voluntary and doesn't discourage competition, but then, who could possibly compete? If someone could put together a private minor-league football system, don't you think it would have happened already?

So the NCAA doesn't follow the teachings of capitalism. In fact, it has all the distinguishing marks of a cartel: collusion, side payments, limiting supply, and barriers to entry. And there's one more thing about college sports that isn't capitalistic at all.

The core values of the NCAA, according to their Web site, are learning, balance, spirit, community, fair play, and character. All very commendable, but I take exception to the "fair play" part. That's because college athletes are indentured servants.

To put true capitalism into action, instead of just talking about it, you must allow college-age athletes to offer their skills to the highest bidder. Education has always come second for athletes, so why maintain the fiction? If a player wants to attend school, he can do it on his own time and with his own money. An athletic scholarship is just a euphemism for slavery. The school forces the athlete to work without pay (and it is a job), while the school (and the NCAA) reaps all the rewards. An axiom of capitalism is that you, not someone else, gain the benefits of your own abilities and efforts.

The current system doesn't really work for anybody involved. Either the athletic side or the academic side has to change ... or both can change. And that is the first part of my master plan.

College sports programs should have the option to spin themselves off from their colleges. Once they do, they become businesses in their own right. They can rent their facilities from the school or buy them over time, which continues the financial support that sports programs have always provided for schools. They can continue to use the school's symbols by paying a licensing fee, or they can develop their own symbols. They can even become a minor-league team for a professional team, a type of arrangement already in place in baseball.

As for the NCAA, these new private programs can still belong to it and still participate in all the same activities. We've already seen that the system needs some kind of oversight. All I'm suggesting is that we do away with the injustice of "amateur" athletes.

The employee athletes will have more time for training, since they don't have to attend classes. They will get the same amount of money from the program, but paid directly to them instead of as a scholarship. They may get food and lodging as part of their compensation package, or they may take cash instead. Since they'll be treated as adults, they'll have to act as adults, meaning they won't have (or need) all the restrictions of living in an athletic dorm. If they behave in a way that negatively impacts their performance or the image of the team, the team can always fire them.

With this one change, everyone can get what they want and deserve. The only real difference is that athletes get the money they earn. Of course, that means less money for the schools ... which leads to the second part of my master plan.

Something for Nothing

Back in February I vowed to find a better way to redeem America (see previous post). I'm back here to say that I didn't. However, I did learn a couple of things.

The election is upon us, and it probably won't change much of anything. If Obama wins, the Republicans will control the House, and nothing will get done. If Romney wins, the Democrats will control the Senate, and nothing will get done. Then again, that's the point. The election coverage (and the hyperpartisan feuding in general) is infotainment, a cloud of dust that obscures the real issues.

Many people, myself included, predicted a bad outcome from the Citizens United decision (see another post). The Money Party is pouring record amounts of money into the campaign, much of it in secret. The media are obscuring the real issues by distracting their viewers with infotainment.

I consider myself a moderate. I'm more interested in balancing the two major parties than in following one or the other. At the moment that means pulling left to counteract a pull to the right. If the left had a big advantage, I'd want to pull right. I point this out because, during my hiatus, I tried to convince people on both sides to see the big picture. As in my driving analogy (in an earlier post), both parties are so consumed with fighting over the steering wheel that they don't see where the truck is going. Apart from these activists, there's a significant portion of the country that doesn't care where the country is going. Either they're too busy trying to survive, or they're too wrapped up in their infotainment.

See the common thread? Infotainment. It's an endless diet of garbage served up on televisions, computers, radios, magazines, and anywhere else someone might suffer the risk of momentary boredom. I can't possibly compete with the quantity, but I have a shot at producing better quality.

So Wachagonadu will continue. As far as I know, only one person currently reads it (and you know who you are). That means doing some marketing, publicity, whatever you call it, to get more eyes. I have to hope that my observations and ideas will draw more attention once people become aware of the blog. Without a voice of sanity, our civilization on its present course could well spiral down into anarchy or oblivion.

Or not. Things rarely get as bad as you expect (but see my later post on "climate change").

That's one thing I learned. The other is that Americans are lazy. We want something for nothing.

Think about it. In general, people on the right want lower taxes, but they don't want any decrease in government services. People on the left want more services, but they have only vague ideas about how to pay for them. Both want the government to give them something for nothing.

Same thing with schools. The right wants lower property taxes, which is how most places fund their schools, but they expect their children to get a good education. The left wants schools to do what parents ought to do.

Health care? The right wants government completely out of it, but they ignore the huge cost increases that HMOs have brought. The left wants everyone to have world-class care, no matter what it costs, but someone down the line has to pay for that.

Politics? Worst of all. The right wants their entire agenda implemented, no compromise possible, and they'll hold up everything else until they get it. The left is even more cowardly, if that's possible, for letting them get away with it. And again, that's the point. Who benefits if the government is in perpetual gridlock? Only the people who can already pay for the services they need--the Money Party.

What ya gonna do? We expect the government to do ... something, even if we're not sure what, and we don't want to know the details of implementing it or how to pay for it. Because we're lazy.

I said I hadn't found a better way to redeem America. I now believe that this blog is the best way. If nobody listens, I've done what I could, but if there's an audience, my work will at least start a helpful discussion.

So it's time to stop being lazy. Find out how government works. Go to your local school board meeting, city council, or homeowner's association. Lurk for a while. Find out what the issues are. Then get involved.

Or you could follow my master plan for reviving America. It starts next time with ... football?

Enough Is Enough

Recently, I reconnected with someone who had been a good friend, in fact one of the best. We began a dialogue of phone calls and emails to get caught up with each other. Then he remembered that I was a "liberal." The calls stopped. Messages went unanswered. I had become the enemy. The truth didn't matter. Our prior relationship didn't matter. Has nobody noticed how foul the atmosphere has become in the United States? Did it happen so gradually that we became accustomed to it? Do we not become outraged because there's a fresh, more outrageous outrage every day? Enough is enough. Presidential candidates compete to see who can make the most heartless statement. They make thinly veiled threats against minorities. They insult everyone who isn't like them. They say their top issue is "beating Obama" despite the worst economy in generations. And they get applause for this behavior. Enough is enough. Politicians who are stupid enough to dispute climate change are fouling their own nest. They take money from the oil companies (or anybody else) and say what they're told to say. They put politics and their own careers ahead of the well-being, possibly even the survival, of humanity. Enough is enough. The arguments over "class warfare" and "wealth envy" are ridiculous. I don't hate the wealthy because they have money, I hate them when they abuse the power that money gives them. Making money is not an end in itself. Operating under the assumption that it is gives rise to amoral behavior. Excusing that amorality has become just another theme of the endless media circus. Enough is enough. When did religion become part of politics? Not just in the #1 distraction issue of abortion, but in the whole good-versus-evil, no-compromise, take-no-prisoners attitude towards every issue. We seem to have forgotten that politics doesn't work without compromise. Pretending they can get everything they want is childish. Enough is enough. I am angry. Complaining about things in a blog is no longer enough. Writing pointless letters to Congress isn't enough. Casting pointless votes isn't enough. I have to find a way to make a difference. When I do, I'll post it here.