Tag: #Greed

  • Behind the Scenes Drama of the Super League

    Here is the New York Times story about how the Super League died. Stories of greed and hubris are as old as Greek drama.

    www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/sports/soccer/super-league-soccer.html

  • Europe’s Super League is a Mistake

    I have been following the Premier League for the past couple of years, and specifically supporting Tottenham Hotspur for the past three. I have watched them change mangers twice, get to the finals of the Champions League, got really annoyed when they didn’t re-sign Eriksen, got totally confused as to why Dele isn’t playing, and got really happy with the Kane/Son duo on the pitch. I even paid for Peacock so I could watch matches, and have tried to read up on the history of the team, so I at least have a bit of a knowledge to build off of.

    So, when the Super League was announced on Sunday, I had a resigned disappointment. Here is an explainer from the New York Times. Long story short, 12 of the biggest football clubs in Europe are forming a new league, and outside of these 12 teams making a whole lot of money, there really isn’t much benefit for anyone else. The Super League will kill off smaller clubs, actually eliminates competition, and just reeks of greed.

    And as an American, I just want to say, “Your welcome, European football fans!” Yup, we are great at greed and capitalism when it comes to ruining sports. I love baseball, but there is no mystery to that sport; whoever spends the most wins. Why don’t baseball clubs just announce how much they are planning on spending, and then the top 16 teams just play each other for the championship? It would cut out the pesky middle man, which is that boring summer season. There is no real competition during the baseball season, the playoffs is where all the action is, and money determines it.

    Which is what the Super League is. They have decided that their home leagues are meaningless, and having to deal with competition from smaller clubs is just getting in the way. The difference is in America, we still perpetrate the lie, while Europe is coming around to the truth; this isn’t about sports, it’s about making money.

    Again, you’re welcome Europe!

  • Morality in Economics

    I read David Brooks today, and call me crazy, I think that this conservative guy is slowly becoming liberal. I will thank Trump for that, but more importantly, I welcome David to the party.

    I took the point of his piece, which was that America business needs to get its morality back in check. Think about employees, customers, and the communities they exist in, and not just the bottom line, shareholders, and stock value.

    Is this the first crack in the Conservative love of all things that came out of Milton Friedman’s mouth?

    I have held, and said many times, that Friedman’s approach and the way he viewed capitalism was destructive to all of us. I always felt that Friedman’s failure was rooted in the idea that an individual or corporation would “pay by the rules” in their quest for capital, and no one would cheat. The truth of the matter is that if there is money to be made, someone, inevitably will cheat, and someone gets hurt.

    Also, Friedman thought that governments should get out of the way and let companies do what they do. He thought all companies would want deregulation, but what he missed was that companies want regulation on everyone else, just not them. That’s why there is a weird revolving door with CEOs and executives getting named as heads of regulation organizations. (FCC, FDA, ect…)

    In a philosophical sense, I believe that all economics are based in emotions and not in logic. Economies are not math, it is not a science; it is completely man made, and as such, will behave illogically often to meet its desired ends. To put a morality on top of capitalism is a neat idea, and to do that, you need some agreed upon regulations.

    Welcome to the party, David.

  • FaceBook, Same as the Old Boss

    I just read the new article in the NY Times that details how FaceBook put up privacy walls for users, but then turned around and created partnerships with other tech companies and gave them the private data.

    For one, 2018 has been an awful year for FaceBook.

    And for two, why am I still on FaceBook and Instagram?

    There’s lots of ground covered in the article, and Facebook isn’t the only guilty party in this story either, but are any of us really surprised that a corporation was greedy, and put profit over the well-being of their customers? Even lied to their customers, so they could keep making more money, and to make the shareholders happy. (Even Google has stopped using it’s, “Don’t Be Evil,” moto. That can’t be a good sign for a corporation.)

    I’m not naïve enough to believe that there was ever a “good era” for corporations; such as, corporations were acting in the best interest of their customers and society in general. Their job is to make as much money as possible, and I don’t think that will ever change. What I do have a problem with is that there seems to be no repercussion for a corporation when they get caught telling outright lies to their customers and the country. What are you going to do?

    We could sue them?

    Nope, we all signed agreements that allow FaceBook to do this. And even if we wanted to sue them, we couldn’t because we agreed to settle any disputes in arbitration, and not a court.

    Yes, I am seriously thinking about deleting all of my social accounts.

    But is it even possible anymore to go anonymous on the internet?