The National Football league is wealthy, but still gets welfare from the taxpayers. We are so used to hierarchies, that we don't question when the top gets their welfare checks from tax payers. Easterbrook's article describes how the owner of the Washington Redskins [with their hierarchical racist name] is worth $1 billion, yet the taxpayers paid $4 million to upgrade a workout facility.
Taxpayers in Ohio were hit with a $33 Million bill for stadium costs while the county cut $23.6 million from their health-and-human services budget. In Minnesota, the legislature, facing a $1.1 billion budget deficit, extracted $506 million from taxpayers to pay for a new football facility. Although the capital for the stadiums is being underwritten by the public, most football revenue generated within the facility will be pocketed by club owners. In NFL city after NFL city, the pattern is repeated. The extremely profitable and one of the most subsidized organizations in American history, the NFL also enjoys tax-exempt status.
The article concludes: "Until public attitudes change, those at the top of the pro-football pyramid will keep getting away with whatever they can. Ordinary people are taxed so a small number of NFL owners and officers can live as modern feudal lords and ladies. Football is the king of sports, based on inequality and greed."
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/how-the-nfl-fleeces-taxpayers/309448/
