One of the
things The Frau loved about being in Switzerland was forgetting all about huge
American sporting obsessions like the Superbowl. Unless of course, she checked
Facebook, where American friends were posting obsessively about it.
Now that
she’s back in the U.S., she can’t avoid certain American sporting pastimes, but
she is doing her hardest to try—at least when it comes to the NFL. This has
less to do with not caring about sports and more to do with the overall inequality in the country these days.
Is The Frau
crazy? What does American football have to do with American inequality? Well,
actually a lot. See, the National
Football League is classified as a non-profit organization.
Yes. You
heard The Frau right. The NFL…which pays players millions and charges a devoted
fan thousands of dollars for one Superbowl ticket…they are tax exempt in the
eyes of the American government.
Which
brings us to Americans abroad. Who are not tax exempt in the eyes of the
American government, even though they must also pay tax to the country they are
living in and have no representation in the U.S. despite their tax liabilities.
Does any of
this make any sense?
No. The
United States not a lot of sense these days makes. And the Superbowl pretty
much represents everything that’s wrong about the U.S. these days: rich getting
a tax break while the rest of us pay.
Anyone else refusing to watch on Sunday?
