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NBA vetoes a trade: exposes the protection in place for large corporations

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superboyac:
I don't know if any of you are following the fiasco happening in the NBA right now.  The NBA vetoed a trade that would have sent arguably the leagues best point guard to the Los Angeles Lakers (not arguably the most successful and prized NBA franchise in history).  In the three team trade, the New Orleans Hornets would have gotten some really good players, and a third team was involved.  All in all, in basketball terms, the trade was good, all parties were satisfied.

For the first time ever, the league vetoed the trade.  No reason has been given.  To make things worse, New Orleans was struggling financially last year, and instead of closing up shop, the NBA stepped in and purchased it.  So for the first time in history, the league owns one of the teams.  And now the league blocked the trade.  Makes you wonder what's going on.

The bottom line is this:  all the millionaires and billionaires have gotten used to having their profits GUARANTEED.  This is killing any opportunities we have in this country as middle or low class citizens.  They have no guarantees for anything, financially.  So all these rules, copyrights, marketing techniques, media hype, etc...it's all put in place by the people who can pay for them (the rich corporations) to make sure their profits are guaranteed.  And can anyone else do the same?  Nope.

So there's a big stink about this now.  Players are now restricted in movement, a right fought for and won by Oscar Robertson decades ago.  The term "slaves" is being thrown around, and it's got a point.  Granted they are multi-million dollar slaves, the idea is present.

This is not hopeful for those who aren't already extremely successful.  We're feeling the burden of scrapping for every penny while the fat cats are being gauranteed more and more profits as each day goes by.  Every time you try to do something to help your cause in life, pay attention to all the legal jargon and rules that get thrown across your path to slow you down, all the forms you have to fill out, all the "extra" commitments made in terms of contracts and monthly payments, all the money you have to dish out BEFORE you even try to do anything.  Oh, you found some like-minded friends, who are intelligent and creative, and you guys want to make your way in the world?  Good luck..the opportunity is not there, and you will probably get beaten down along the way if you try.  That's exactly what has happened to these superstar atheltes in the NBA.  But what it means for us normal folk is not positive either.

There are those who don't believe that any of this is happening because there are no statistics proving it for them, or you can't see it in the media.  In these articles we read every day with advertisements plastered all over the place, you don't know where the article begins and where the ad ends.  heck, the article authors are probably trying to just churn out conent because they need every penny they can get, and it's not about quality, it's about quantity.  All of this is killing our opportunities.

Most people have to scrap for every single cent they get.  Yet with one click of a button, you send thousands of dollars each month directly into the financial system (mortgage payments is what I'm referring to here) and the financial system proceeds to spread that money to a lot of extremely wealthy people who's "skill" and creativity is only in coming up with new and better ways to guarantee profits for them in business...when the whole idea of the business ecosystem is that profits are not guaranteed but dicatated by the market, etc. 

Or maybe that isn't how business works.  Maybe profits ARE guaranteed.  Are YOUR profit guaranteed?  No.  So who?  Good question.  Can i start a business and guarantee profits before I commit to it?  No.  So who?  Seems like a pretty nice world to be in.  I wonder how we can get there?  Sigh...

eleman:
So all these rules, copyrights, marketing techniques, media hype, etc...it's all put in place by the people who can pay for them (the rich corporations) to make sure their profits are guaranteed.  And can anyone else do the same?  Nope.
-superboyac (December 09, 2011, 02:06 PM)
--- End quote ---

It's refreshing to see that people are waking up to the fact that intellectual property rights are just a way to keep means of production under the capital's control. Though Marx did not see that coming, the idea resembles what marxism would stand out against in the 21st century.

p.s.: Minor edit for grammar.

Renegade:
So all these rules, copyrights, marketing techniques, media hype, etc...it's all put in place by the people who can pay for them (the rich corporations) to make sure their profits are guaranteed.  And can anyone else do the same?  Nope.
-superboyac (December 09, 2011, 02:06 PM)
--- End quote ---

It's refreshing to see that people are waking up to the fact that intellectual property rights are just a means to keep means of production under the capital's control. Though Marx did not see that coming, the idea resembles what marxism would stand out against in the 21st century.
-eleman (December 10, 2011, 03:08 AM)
--- End quote ---

+1

The current legal system is horribly biased in favour of concentrated capital as well.

Here's an example:

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=monsanto+sues+farmers+cross+pollination

In what reality is that fair? If anything, Monsanto should be sued, or better yet, charged with war crimes for waging bio-warfare.

But farmers simply can't afford the legal fees to protect against bogus IP lawsuits. So, rather than lose everything as a vampiric legal system sucks them dry, they settle out of court.

Hungary didn't take a very good view of Monsanto infecting their country: http://naturalsociety.com/hungary-destroys-all-monsanto-gmo-corn-fields/

wraith808:
I don't get where this trade would hurt the NBA?  What rationale could they have that would be self-serving?

Paul Keith:
I don't really get the analogy.

I get the nobility of the analogy but replay the controversies and conspiracies of the last years and you will hear many criticize Stern and LA for doing the Pau-Kwame trade (resulting in several championships) which in turn justified the Lebron trade whose critics end up justifying the Boston trade.

Plus Paul is not really anymore different than people earlier in the lock-out worrying about Dwight being another Shaq for LA. (It's what set up all the silly rules in the first place. This worry about super teams and then this type of deals happening where teams end up having super teams anyway.)

On top of this, Stern is in a midst of losing control of the rules. No thanks to delivering a washed down basketball product and trying to manufacture Lebron which led to things like the Decision. There's also been a tampering charge against two teams contacting Dwight. A veto is not really that much out of order. This wasn't some major game trading change except that the league finally tried to be more vocal against big market teams holding more leverage. Worst case scenario, it's a slippery slope.

The bottomline is really a stretch. In the end, this is a league. You don't like the rules, don't be part of the league. You want to sidestep competition and acquire a major player to immediately resurrect the notability of your team, cheat the system but don't be surprised if things like this occur. It doesn't have anything to do with low class citizens seeing as both players and owners are bonafide rich. It doesn't have anything to do with slavery seeing as the player restriction is restricted only to teams within the league. Neither the Hornets or LA suffer heavily from this either. Lakers have been what? Champions and still are able to renegotiate for Paul. Hornets don't suddenly become the Red Auerbach Boston Celtics if they keep Paul.

It's really not good to hold an argument on the basis of guaranteed profits when a league has just nearly been/is still part of a lock-out. Especially issues such as this that only become rant-worthy because it's the NBA and it's not some lesser known sports league/sports controversy.

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