Sports in America
by Tibor R. Machan
"I am a refugee to this country not because it manufactures Olympic winners, or the
greatest technology in the world, or for any other single achievement found in it, but
because it is the best environment for individuals to pursue their own happiness,
according to their own individual talents, abilities, and choices."
Sports: The Great American Surrogate
by Donald G. Smith
"The simple truth is that organized sports fills a need in the American competitive
psyche that is lacking in the business world. What government has taken away, the
Yankees, Bears, and Lakers have put back. We are a people who want to see good work
rewarded, transgressions punished, and books balanced. We have turned to sports to
find these things. It is a world that people understand and a world that people want.
A touchdown is a touchdown, a home run is a home run, and a slam dunk is two points
for the slammer."
Is High School Football a Public Good?
December 21, 2006
by Jim Fedako
"Those who push for additional taxes to benefit high school sports are not the champions
of a greater good. No, they are simply bandits using more accepted means to force their
neighbors to split the bill. Asking is seen as inappropriate; coercing is celebrated.
Public goods are a cover for coercion, and public high school football is a private
good funded by someone else's tax bill. Don't believe otherwise."
Is Protecting Us the Government’s First Priority?
August 17, 2004
by Ivan Eland
"At an international event where pride of origin is usually encouraged, U.S. athletes
are apparently being told not to wear T-shirts that would identify them as Americans.
In a great understatement, one Olympic coach was quoted in The San Francisco Chronicle
as saying, “How the world is now, America isn’t the favorite country.” One might ask how
the “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave”—a model of political and economic freedom
geographically removed from most centers of conflict—has put its citizens in mortal
danger by becoming so generally despised."
Let Em Skate!: Defeating Local Socialism
by George C. Leef
"Three months after the defeat of the ice arena, a company in the sports-facilities
business announced that it would build an arena in Meridian Township, spending less
than the task force plan called for and creating no risk for the taxpayers."
Rinkonomics: A Window on Spontaneous Order
May 1, 2006
by Daniel B. Klein
"On the floor of the roller rink, the social good can only be achieved by spontaneous
order. As Hayek explained, the case for leaving action spontaneous is stronger the more
complex social affairs are, because greater complexity only exacerbates the planner's
knowledge problems. When the situation is simple, central planning can succeed. If there
were just four skaters on the floor of the rink, central planning might not be so bad.
But with 100 skaters, it is preposterous."
The Locker Room Is Private Property
by Donald G. Smith
"It is my contention that the owner has the right to ban women, or anyone else, from
the locker room for no other reason than simple ownership. This is the same right that
a female reporter would invoke to keep any uninvited person out of her home, including
a team owner. The team owner doesn’t owe an explanation to those who are kept out and
most certainly not to any group of political reformers or protest marchers. It is quite
clearly none of their business. The same owner has the right to admit only female
reporters and to keep the men out, or to allow only reporters over 40, or those with
last names beginning A through L. This is the owner’s prerogative, and it is not the
business of government to determine who is to be allowed in a private facility."
Major League Losers: The Real Cost of Sports and Who's Paying For It by Mark
S. Rosentraub and Home Team: Professional Sports and the American Metropolis by
Michael N. Danielson
reviewed by Raymond J. Keating
"Both Rosentraub and Danielson largely place the blame for taxpayer subsidies on
such misnomers as sports “cartels” or “monopolies,” when in fact they are another
outgrowth of our massive welfare state."
Pro Sports on the Dole
by Raymond J. Keating
"Corporate welfare deeply infiltrates baseball, along with most other professional
sports. That is, a distasteful and costly alliance between government and business.
Fans no longer support their favorite teams and players merely through ticket prices,
concessions, team apparel and souvenirs, and cable TV subscriptions, but through their
taxes as well. Taxpayers across America—whether they are fans or not—are subsidizing
the portion of the entertainment industry known as professional sports. While such
subsidies are completely unjustified, they become even more egregious considering, for
example, that the average employee in major league baseball earns more than a million
dollars a year."
Sports Welfare
by Doug Bandow
"At a time of tight public budgets, a serious debate over the role of government is
long overdue. Although entertaining the masses might have been an accepted role for
government in ancient Rome, surely Americans today are capable of amusing themselves
without government subsidies for the modern equivalent of gladiatorial games."
Superstar Athletes Provide Economics Lessons
by K. L. Billingsley
"Besides illustrating market forces, athletics shows how a nearly pure meritocracy
works. Nobody starts at quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys or guard for the Los Angeles
Lakers because his father once played or happens to own the team. If a misguided urban
youth can run, pass, kick, and play defense better than those raised in the wealthy
suburbs, he will get the job, whatever his race, nationality, or religion. In sports,
nepotism is a guarantee of failure, something that government needs to learn. But the
attempt of some stars to gain money by other means is also illuminating."
Superstars as Slaves
by Jerome Ellig
"Let’s leave the owners and players alone to figure out what each other’s efforts
are worth, subject as always to the fans’ veto in the form of refusal to buy tickets."
Government Legislation: A Bad Idea for Baseball
December 8, 2004
by Benjamin Powell
"Following the revelation that Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi used steroids, some
government officials began demanding that major league baseball adopt a stricter
steroid policy. While much ink has been devoted to the impact of steroids on the
game of baseball, too little attention has been paid to whether or not the government
should have any role in determining the league’s steroid policy."
The Socialization of Baseball
by Jacob Holbrooks
"In order to sell baseball as a product that the government should pay to provide,
baseball executives have cultivated the idea that baseball is an American right and
is socially indispensable."
Fore: Watch Out for Government Golf!
by Raymond J. Keating
"In the end, there is no justification whatsoever for government involvement in the golf
business. Even if one subscribes to the idea of market failure, certainly none of the
criteria for such failure—i.e., monopoly, public goods, external costs, or inadequate
information—exist in the case of golf courses. The only reasons for the existence of
government golf courses are patronage (another opportunity for politicians to dole out
jobs), special-interest pressures (some golfers want cheap golf, courtesy of the
taxpayers), and government revenue (politicians believe they can make money with golf
facilities)."
Market Reforms Score Big in Soccer
by L. Jacobo Rodrguez
"Market-oriented policies such as TV deregulation, flexible labor markets, and salaries
determined by the interplay of market forces have allowed Europeans to be in a league of
their own when it comes to soccer, an activity they are very passionate about. One can
only hope EU leaders, realizing what freer markets have done for soccer, will push for
more reform to help other sectors of their often rigid economies and to stop the drain
of human capital."
Soccer—The World Upside Down
June 15, 2006
by Alvaro Vargas Llosa
"Two factors explain why the World Cup has become so competitive: the free mobility of
players across national boundaries and the commercial nature of soccer clubs."
Bring Back Sportsmanship
Spring 2000
by Peter Reinharz and Brian C. Anderson
"Once upon a time, after all, the public—and coaches and team owners too—expected
athletes to stand for certain ideals of civility, self-mastery, respectability, and
fair play that provided an example for all citizens. But when pro football players are
implicated in brutal murders, or a millionaire basketball star assaults his coach—such
incidents now seem to crop up weekly—it's a sign that something has gone awry in sports
and in the culture as a whole. It suggests, too, that sports have become not just a
reflection of cultural decline but an active agent of debasement."
Sports, Politics, and the Constitution
by Murray N. Rothbard
This essay originally appeared in the November 1990 issue of The Rothbard-Rockwell
Report.
"The egregious federal Judge Constance Baker Motley had decreed that women have a
constitutional right to enter male locker rooms! Talk about your judicial activism!"
Why Brits Love Iron Mike
Spring 2000
by Theodore Dalrymple
"A radio interviewer asked the sportswriter of a black newspaper why Tyson had drawn far
bigger crowds than did Lennox Lewis, a black boxer living in England, even after Lewis
had returned home with the world title. The writer replied that people liked Tyson
because he was "a bad boy, a street boy," in contrast to Lewis. Lewis never has had
trouble with the police, still lives at home with his mother—whom he reportedly
reveres—and generally conducts himself in a decent, civilized, and gentlemanly manner.
He is a true sportsman—and therefore, the writer implied, a traitor to his race."
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This page was last updated on May 19, 2007.