This [revenue-sharing] is socialism at work and baseball is still a free-enterprise sport

My favorite former hedge fund analyst asks me if I agree with George Steinbrenner (quoted in the title).

Why would I ever do that, Mariano Rivera notwithstanding? I replied:

No.

Communism flourishes in a healthy home.

How do you feel about weight classes for wrestling and boxing? Socialism at work?

Competition is good, simultaneously raising quality and reducing price, thereby reducing poverty.  It is advanced by communism at home*; by efficient markets elsewhere.

Why does the NFL (salary capped league) revenue pie continue to expand, while major league baseball continues to contract?  Which system tolerates more out-of-shape past-their-prime athletes?  My guess is that the competition is much more evident and salient in one than the other, even though baseball had a huge cultural advantage and still has significant advantages today.

Salary caps level the playing field.  Socialism kills the field, except in a group** where everyone's interests can be balanced in a non-utilitarian and stable way.


*where the young, the old, and the special-needs can receive the most care and therefore reach their potential

**Like two parents who sacrifice career and recreation for a special needs child (or any child, for that matter, regardless of what the child can pay or how it looks or whatev).  Or someone who honors and sacrifices for their aging parents.