Once upon a time, people lamented how political discourse had devolved from great oratory to the desire to create juicy sound bites. Today, it has devolved even further, into the “artform” known as the meme.
There I was, minding my own business on Facebook, and there it was scattered between the quizzes to determine what type of goldfish you are and funny pictures of cats. This one meme that had so many glaring problems that I just couldn’t let it go.
The quote comes from a book called “Against Football: One Reluctant Fan’s Manifesto” by Steve Almond. Almond’s background is in journalism. Clearly, it’s not in economics, based on what we see here.
First, let’s take a look at his comments regarding the market.
“The ‘market’-meaning us, the fans-has determined Allen’s value is roughly $18.5 million per year.”
Uh…no.
Almond doesn’t even begin to understand what the market is. Fans do not hire players. Teams do. The market in this case is not the fans, but the teams. These are teams that also operate under a salary cap, so they take a look at each player’s talents and abilities and that salary cap and decide what it’s worth to them.
The fans either applaud the decision, scream about it, or ignore it. None of that really has much bearing on the decisions the team makes. As a football fan myself, I understand where I am “the market”. That’s on things like merchandise, ticket prices, and vending inside the stadium. At that point, my decisions to buy or not buy (along with everyone else’s) does impact the team.
Now, it’s possible that if too many people decided to boycott the team because they were paying Jared Allen so much money, then that could motivate change on that front, but that’s a whole different game.