Golden State

A friend again!

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

I am a Golden State Warriors fan.

Andrew Wiggins just signed a 4-year contract worth $109 million.  He is not worth that kind of money.  That is some 2,000 times more than most Americans earn!

Jordan Poole just signed a 4-year contract worth $140 million.  While he is worth more than Andrew Wiggins, he is not worth that kind of money.

Their star player, Steph Curry, is on his second year of a 4-year contract worth $215 million.  While he is worth more than Jordan Poole, he too is not worth that kind of money.

Steve Kerr, the team’s head coach, earns $5 million per year.  Eight of Golden State’s players earn more than he does, six earn MUCH more than he does.  And he is clearly worth more than several of his players.  He surely earns closer to his just desserts than his players do.  Kerr is already recognized as one of the NBA’s best coaches of all time.  Curry earns ten times as much as Kerr; their star player IS worth more than their great coach, but not ten times as much!

“But, if the players don’t reap the benefits of their star power, the enormous revenue that the team earns will just go to management and the owners.”

Well, maybe not.

Consider: Chase Center seats are priced at whatever the traffic will bear.  In other words, most of us will never watch a professional basketball game live, in our team's own stadium.  Most local fans will never watch a Golden State game in their own hometown!  Maybe one quarter to one half of those pricey tickets could be priced at movie prices and distributed like lottery winnings.

And maybe a team's host city could enjoy a sizable chunk of the team’s revenues, too.

"So, how can the city reap that whirlwind?"

Through taxation, of course.

But this adjustment in tax receipts should not fall on sports figures (players and owners) alone.  As it is, the most successful of all of us – for example, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg – pay nary a dime in income taxes as they need not declare any taxable income.  Those who do declare enormous incomes get taxed at rates that are not much higher than a typical American wage-slave, and it is well past time to fix that inequity.

Capitalism does NOT depend on the non-distribution of individual income or wealth; read your Adam Smith!  The father of Capitalism believes in the re-distribution of wealth.

And I can’t think of a better place to start this than with my very own Golden State Warriors.