Socialism Not as Effective in Sporting Leagues, Either

Let Freedom Ring: Busting the Myth of the Salary Cap by Shawn Hoffman is short, and worth a read.

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Very few people need baseball teams to exist

Pro Baseball is a different sort of industry than, say, the electrical industry. A union contract for electricians makes better economic sense than a contract for baseball teams.

MLBPA

The players' union isn't in favor of the cap, but have shown some willingness to accept it if it comes along with a minimum floor (as far as team payroll is concerned). They did negotiate a minimum Major League salary in the last CBA, which scales upward with baseball's total gross. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of $370,000 per year.

I'm kind of iffy on unions in general. They protect their members from competition, which can be good for their members, but not so if you're on the outside looking in. Also, rewarding seniority over productivity can have its drawbacks, not that this doesn't happen all the time in non-union companies.

What I found interesting about the article is that price controls aren't often presented as unfavorable in the world of sports.

What I find interesting

What I find interesting about Baseball is that people watch it. Utterly fascinating.

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