Striking Out

THE MOST MONEY I ever made in a single year was, I believe, about forty six grand, teaching. since I never maried nor had children, it was enough. I was happy, happy to live in one small apartment after another, depending on where I happened to be teaching. By the time I turned fifty, I wa able to afford to build a nice, small house, pay for it, and retire there fifteen years later, so, no complaints. Unabashedly I assert this: that in one year of teaching (I taught for forty years) I did more good for America, contributed more to society, and had a far greater positive impact on society and humanity than a professional athlete - any professional athlete - does over his or her entire career. And I never even taught first grade. For my money, the first grade teachers, the true rocket launchers, life launcher of lives well lived, deserve the big bucks, bigger than anyone who ever threw a pass or hot one over the fence. My opinion on this matter is in context with the fact that I am a life long sports fanatic, especially a baseball fan, having becoming one in first grade, when my dad told me that everybody hated the Yankees, and I, the compassionate one, decided to love them, out of pity. I still love my Yankees, my Sixers, my Bears, my Blackhawks, and my Razorbacks, not necessarily in that order. And I understand capitalism, well. Supply, demand, all of it. I strongly believe in our socialistic public school system; teaching should not be undertaken for profit, but for service and personal fulfillment. Since I understand capitalism, I feel impelled to remind the Major League Baseball Players Union that the multi-billionaire baseball team oowners are doing nothing other than behaving exactly as capitalists behave in a capitalistic economy: they are attempting to maximize profit, partly by reducing labor costs as much as possible. The players are behaving like workers; trying to get their fair share, and unionizing to do so. Nobody should really have any complaint wth either group, yet everybody seems to. As if we the American pro capitalistic public suddenly expects business people and workers to act in the public interest, as if both owners and players, by remaining deadlocked in a locked out industry, are somehow depriving us the American people of something to which we have an inalienable right; entertainment. To wit: if they work it out, fine. If they don't, they both lose far more than you or I, and American capitalism trudges ever onward, chewing people up and spitting them out, as per usual, just as we intended. John Maymared Keynes, perhaps the most insightful economist ever, said, insightfully: "Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men operating with the nastiest of motives will function in the best interests of all." Well, and then, I'm a socialist. I think baseball players should be paid no more, or perhaps even less, than first grade teachers, by government edict if necessary. (It would be necessary) My opinion is not based on ignorance. I can name every World Series and Super Bowl winner. I can give lectures in economic, political, political, and artistic history. In fact I did so, for many years, at colleges, universities, and high schools. I assert that every American is partly a socialist, no matter how adamantly most might deny it. To renounce American socialism one must renounce Social Security, public highways and bridges, public police and fire departments, and about a million other socialized by necessity American goods and services, provided by government. Yes, all the aforementioned are in fact products of socialism, which, I assert, meshes well with well regulated capitalism. Kudos to the ten year old and his lemon ade stand. I'm still glad I was a teacher, but as much as I love Major League Baseball, since it insists on using a capitalist economic model, I favor letting it sink or swim in the free market, like any other nasty money grubbing business enterprise. I can always go grab a good high school basseball game, played by guys who do it for the love of the game only.