COMMENTARY: Those atop the heap must feel the force of gravity

(RNS) It’s difficult to feel sympathy for professional football players, whose multimillion-dollar salaries for playing a game would feel like a life-changing lottery win to most Americans. It’s even more difficult, however, to feel the pain of National Football League team owners, a dapper cadre of mega-wealthy men who reap vast fortunes from the game […]

(RNS) It’s difficult to feel sympathy for professional football players, whose multimillion-dollar salaries for playing a game would feel like a life-changing lottery win to most Americans.

It’s even more difficult, however, to feel the pain of National Football League team owners, a dapper cadre of mega-wealthy men who reap vast fortunes from the game and then have the gall to demand that local taxpayers underwrite their stadiums.

Even though my New York Jets are poised for a Super Bowl season, I’m thinking it would be OK to do without pro football for a year. Sunday afternoon will survive. Football is, after all, just a game.


I’m feeling the same way about Iraq and Afghanistan. Devoting more American lives to those corrupt warlords and religious extremists is absurd.

Same with American bankers. Their greedy practices led us into a recession. Then they lined up for government bailouts, used the billions for executive salaries and acquisitions, and resumed their venal stupidity. Next time: let the banks fail. We could hardly be worse off than we are after protecting them against marketplace realities.

Same with tax breaks for the wealthy. They want a functioning government but don’t want to pay for it? Let them do without government insurance on their bulging bank accounts, government monitoring of securities trading to assure value, government protection of patents and contracts, government subsidies for faltering industries, government tax deductions for status-affirming contributions to charities and religious institutions, and police officers to protect their estates.

Maybe it’s time for a shakeout. Not the shakeout currently under way, in which lower and middle classes are falling off the edge, but a true shakeout in which those who benefit from the society they plunder feel the impact of their plundering.

Can’t sell the $10 million cottage in the Hamptons? Too bad. Can’t escape potholes, creaky trains and backed-up airports? Too bad. Can’t offer securities because no one trusts the rating agencies and the SEC is underfunded and intimidated? Too bad. Can’t compete without cheap fuel and high-margin military contracts? Too bad.

When an economy fails because only a few benefit from it, even those atop the heap will face the law of gravity. Do the entitled few truly believe they are tough enough to compete in a global economy just because they have rigged the rules at home to their benefit? China will eat their lunch.


When the going gets tough, I would put my money on firefighters, plumbers, auto workers, teachers and other modestly paid workers whom the mega-wealthy scorn as layabouts. I’d back single moms working two jobs, undocumented immigrants working seven days a week, farmers whose hands are always dirty, shop owners who know about real risk, and young entrepreneurs who imagine amazing things into being without that first government subsidy.

I would see confidence rising among those who believe in God and know God’s providence, while confusion reigns among worshippers of Mammon who confuse luck and larceny with divine favor.

Mega-wealth might buy some politicians and break some labor unions, but in time, serving self and greed aren’t the foundations of a healthy life. Hard work will trump inherited wealth. Working through troubles will yield strong values and healthy families, whereas easy wins and expensive toys produce weakness.

Let NFL team owners eat cake in empty stadiums that they have to pay for.

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