The Game Has Already Been Played

Gotta hand it to blogger(dot)com for hanging on to my drafts. This dates back to 2010. It is just as valid today as it was then. My only changes were spell checking. No apologies given if this results in the perception of a patella rapidly administered to your scrotal membrane.
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Every season, folks sit down with drinks and snacks to watch another sporting event: baseball, basketball, golf, curling, ... etc. Most have a favorite team, a player or car and driver.

Few ever notice the underlying reality. Every game, every race and every hole has already been played. Every perfect turn or pass has been made. Every mistake has been made. All that remains is who will make one or more mistakes that makes them the loser. Sports has been perfected. Only the players can make a mistake that allows another team or player to gain an advantage.

The folks continue to participate in the multi-billion dollar entertainment complex as willing contributors to not just their favorite team, but also the losers (real or figuratively) that competed against them.

But I watch on TV. So what! Do you think that the TV station broadcasts the event as a public service.

Major league sports wouldn't exist in its present form without broadcast rights being sold. It is fundamentally impossible for a 1/2 billion dollar sports stadium to be paid for out of gate receipts let alone player and staff salaries.

So the Consolidated Rodeo Arena Partnership (CRAP) sells broadcast rights to Broadcasting United Media Service (BUMS) for $500 million. BUMS then sells advertising minutes to various corporations to recoup the costs. BUMS also charges their network affiliates for rebroadcasting rights. These affiliates have several minutes of airtime to do their own sales of advertising that is sold to local companies and small corporations.

Each time you buy any goods that have been advertised, you are repaying the advertiser for their advertising costs. So as you can see, you are paying the losers indirectly but paying none the less.

Now here comes the real gravel-up-the-rectum kicker. Everyone is making money from you; the players, the sponsors, the camera-man, the advertising executive, everyone. They pay taxes. You are paying their taxes as well as their salaries.

It gets worse so better wrap some duct tape around your ankles otherwise this will blow your socks off.

The corporations make money for their investors who pay taxes. Most folks routinely scream for the corporations to pay more taxes. The corporations make money because they used advertising to get you to buy a new chrome-plated left-hand monkey wrench. Out of the money you paid, part of the price is the cost of advertising. This part is reimbursement to the local retailer and the corporation that brings you these fine crafted doodads.

Is the plot thick enough yet?

Advertising is deductible on taxes. So here we have Joe Public paying for the advertising, the players, ..., and the retailers workforce as well as everyone's tax burden.

The lost revenue from the advertising costs deduction has to be made up. Therefore you pay a higher percentage of the total tax bill.

Every time you scream for taxing the corporations, you are screaming to increase your tax burden.

Grab another beer from the fridge, bust open the chips and turn on the game. Who knows, it might go to triple overtime with the score 0-0. Who will screw-up and lose the game? Like I said, every game has already been played and the real loser is the consumer.

Reality doesn't cease to exist just because you don't believe it.