Posted by Bionic Mosquito on 3/23/2011 11:59:02 AM
The primary reason the government is after Bonds is for allegedly lying to the government. Just like Martha Stewart. The underlying "crime" of ingesting something is secondary; it is only the means to an end, the tool of control used to entrap and ensnare. This is one "crime" (lying) the government cannot abide, and an example is always made of any public figure believed to have done so.
Any so-called "fraud" perpetrated by Bonds on the baseball world has been dealt with in baseball. He will likely never get elected to the Hall of Fame; his name will always have the taint of steroids associated with it. There is no reason for the state to get involved in this, and certainly this is NOT why the state is involved, although some might proclaim it as the noble purpose.
However, there is the bigger question of "why" there is so much money in sports, especially in the US, where three major sports can support athletes making tens of millions per year. (And, by the way, two major college sports could do so as well, except the athletes are not allowed to be paid, an entirely different scam.)
It starts with anti-trust exemption. The government allows special exemption (exemption to a law that shouldn't exist anyway, but that is a different subject) to baseball and other sports, allowing owners to collude with each other and exclude others from participating in their markets.
Second is the public financing of stadiums and arenas. Almost all major sports venues are subsidized with tax dollars.
Third is the impossibly lucrative broadcast-rights fees paid by major networks to telecast the events, media being one of the more regulated industries in the US.
Fourth, the truly unique skills required by the athlete to achieve "making it" in this field. The talents of any professional athlete cannot be replaced by Joe the Plumber, and the talents of a Barry Bonds cannot be replaced by 98% of any of the other players in professional baseball.
Fifth, none of this money is possible without the luxury of the world's reserve currency.
Is it any wonder that athletes can be paid tens of millions per year in such a system? Take only one of the above items: the public funding of stadiums: imagine if your employer / business owner did not have to fund the land, buildings, and improvements of capital facilities and capital stock.
Now, add a second feature from my list above: to become employed by this employer / business owner you had to be in the top one-one hundredth of one percent of your field ' in other words, there is no real competition to you because of the uniqueness of your skills. Now throw in the unbelievable revenue from broadcast rights and the ability to be free from rules that other industries must follow, unlimited funny money, and what do you get? Fat salaries and fat profits for all.
Government enabled Barry Bonds. The entire structure is set up to allow for unfathomable oversize income, and the set up is by the government. The state must ensure an oversize incentive to get the best athletes to turn to athletics for a career.
But why? The overriding purpose of the state in professional is at least two-fold, and quite obvious:
1) it is the "circus" part of bread and circuses, and
2) to replace what was historically known as religion (with its binding set of morals, ethics, culture, family, etc.) with a new religion controlled by the state.
Any who have witnessed American sports, with military flyovers, crying fans, fantasy sports, etc., sees full well how effective the state has been in achieving its purpose.
We should not be surprised that any individual reacts to such incentives with any means available, especially when those means were NOT even proscribed by the employer (which they were not at the time of Bonds' alleged malfeasance).
The trial is a scam, the alleged crime is the one the state hates most, and the system itself is enabled by the state. I say: poor Barry Bonds. Even at his level, just one more pawn.
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