By Austin Hill
Sunday, February 02, 2014
Are you ready for some football?
Super Bowl Sunday is, obviously, a day for fun, food and
friends. But as you enjoy the football game, consider the deeper meaning of it
all – and how our economic fortunes could improve if we seriously changed our
outlook. Consider these important “truths” about the game, and how they can
apply after the game.
1) By the end
of the game one team will be declared the winner, one team will be declared the
loser, and only one individual player will be declared “MVP” - These facts are
so obviousand common place that we don’t really think much about them. Yet
allowing for natural and healthy competition to determine the score is
completely counter to how most Americans (as well as the politicians they
elect) think about labor, the possession of wealth, and the health of the
economy.
Instead of
allowing the best performers to enjoy the spoils of their labor (as we do with
athletic competitions), with economic matters many Americans think in terms of
“shared prosperity” (you have too much wealth and the government should take
more of it away!), “shared responsibility” (the rich people should pay for my
food stamps, Medicaid, mortgage relief, etc..), and “leveling the playing
field” (I can’t have get enough success if you are enjoying too much of it).
It’s not an accident that Americans continually elect politicians who promise
to make our lives easier by minimizing the success of others. If we accepted
other people’s success in the economy the way we accept it on the football
field, we might just find that other people’s success actually creates jobs and
benefits everybody.
2) Every member
of each team will be required to play by the same rules – the NFL goes out of
its way to eliminate human error when it comes to officiating. The referees are
well-trained professionals who are expected to enforce the rules in equal
measure with all the players from both teams – and when applying the rules is
uncertain, digital instant replay technology is deployed to make that the “law”
is applied appropriately.
But when it
comes to real-life things like jobs, opportunity, wages and wealth, Americans
don’t necessarily like the “everyone plays by the same rules” approach. We
prefer government policy makers who hold some of us to the letter of the law,
but give others of us special breaks. A tax deduction for me, a tax hike for
you. Special grants and opportunities according to our gender, ethnicity and
marital status. “Free” subsidies for so-called “green energy” companies, but
harsh taxes and penalties for oil companies. That’s apparently the way we like
it. Yet we might just find that if we chose a government that held us all to
the same requirements, the “high scoring” players among us might create more
opportunity for all of us, and us “lower scoring” players might be incentivized
to improve our game.
3) “Inequality”
runs rampant in the NFL – and it’s not a bad thing - By its nature the game of
football treats quarterbacks differently from punters and place kickers, and we
think nothing of it. Quarterbacks negotiate for the highest compensation
possible with an NFL team, yet many punters and kickers are lucky to play for
the base minimum salary guaranteed by their union.
Yet when it
comes to economic matters outside of professional sports it is often presumed
to be unfair that the CEO of a company earns a multi-million dollar salary,
while entry-level employees of the company earn a government mandated minimum
wage. We accept the fact that the value that football players bring to their
team may vary according to their talents, skills and position, but in our
workplace everybody is somehow supposed to be treated “equally.”
If we stopped
demonizing the high achievers among us (and quit electing politicians who
demonize them as well), we’d likely learn that other people’s achievements can
create opportunity and prosperity for all of us.
Will America return to being that “shining city on the
hill” where achievement is respected, both on and off the field?
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