Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Not too long ago I wrote an article about how it seems as if no sport is safe from becoming politicized. Sadly, The United States Woman’s National Soccer Team is no exception. They have the players complaining about not getting paid the same as the men’s team. They believe that since, the women’s teams have actually won more championships than the men’s team, they should at least earn the same paychecks as the men. Apparently, none of the members of the woman’s team had bothered to study basic economics, basic finances or even basic math during their college years.

Of course, they have probably been exposed to the common myth of the Female Wage Gap. Never mind that the idea of the wage gap has long been debunked by just about anybody who has taken to the time to study the issue. Whenever you have somebody make the claim that women earn seventy-five cents for every dollar a man makes, it’s usually based on a study that only compares the incomes of the men and women of the workforce. It doesn’t take into account that many of the lower-paying careers such as nursing, teaching and librarian jobs are dominated by women. When you have single women, who do work in the same careers as men they usually make as much or sometimes more than their male co-workers. It is common among women who are married and have children to earn less, which is usually due to working less hours than men or single women. Thomas Sowell had a great chapter in in his book, Economic Facts and Fallacies. You also have to take into account that most of the hazardous jobs that have higher than average pay rates are dominated by men.

Of course, if you ever try to point this out to hardened SJW’s, they will just stick their fingers in their ears and scream about how there is some misogynist conspiracy to pay women less. If you try to counter them with more reasonable arguments, such as “If every single workplace in America can somehow get away with cheating women, than why don’t those same businesses just hire all women for their workforce?” they will stare at you blankly before sticking their fingers back in their ears. It’s easier for a SJW to slay a dragon that doesn’t exist, than face the cold reality.

As for the woman’s soccer team, the reason why they are paid less actually revolves around simple math. The men’s teams earn about nine percent of the revenue made by the league, while those on the woman’s team get thirteen percent. Now, how is it possible that the women are making less, when they get a higher percentage of the revenue? The men’s team, despite not having the same success as their female colleagues, still manage to pull in more revenue. So, the real issue is revenue, not discrimination. It seems pretty simple to me. Unfortunately, modern feminists don’t seem to believe in basic math either.

I am reminded of the sad story of the Houston Comets, which had been created during the formation of the WNBA in 1997. I actually have fond memories of the Comets during the late nineties and early two thousands. Back in their heyday, the Comets had a plethora of superstars which included Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoops, Kim Perrot (God rest her soul), Michelle Snow and Tina Thompson. The overwhelming amount of talent helped lead the team to four straight championships. It was refreshing to see any Houston team bring home a championship, since the Astros wouldn’t win a Pennate for another two decades and the Rockets despite winning two back-to-back championships during the 93-94 and 94-95 seasons, were having trouble recapturing the same glory (still are). Since I was such a fanatic about professional basketball back in the day, it was actually nice to have a team to root for during the NBA’s off-season. As great of a team as they were, they couldn’t shake the reality of basic economics or finances.

Despite the Comets becoming a dynasty with four back-to-back championships, they still had a problem with bringing in profit. It got to the point where Leslie Alexander, the owner of the Comets was actually losing money by hanging onto to a team that wasn’t bringing in the same revenue as the men’s teams were. He would later sell the team to Hilton Koch, who after only a year of realizing how unprofitable the venture was, gave the team over to the WNBA. When the league couldn’t find anyone interested in buying the team, they decided to disband the Comets after their last season in 2008. While it was certainly sad to see a dynasty go up in smoke, it proved that there was even a sadder reality. The WNBA just wasn’t bringing in the same profit as the NBA.

I want to point out that I still have a Comets flag proudly hanging in my room, right next those of the Astros and the Rockets. While I am certainly proud of what the team had accomplished, I do understand the sad reality that it just wasn’t profitable to keep it running. What is even sadder is that there are people who just don’t understand certain economic realities. I remember a friend of mine who complained about how unfair it was that the WNBA players were paid less than those who played in the NBA. At the time I didn’t quite have the same understanding of economics as I do now. Yet, I still knew that the reason why female basketball players were paid considerably less than their male counter parts had to do with the simple fact the woman didn’t pull in the same amount of money as the men did. I tried to tell my friend this, but she just shrugged and said that it still wasn’t fair. Yes, certain realities aren’t fair, but unless you can come up with a way to boost the ratings and the tickets sales of the WNBA, you are not going to change the fact that their players will always make less than the leagues that are pulling in the money. That is what the players of The United States Woman’s National Soccer Team needs to understand, instead of filing discrimination suits against their employers. I think this foolhardy move can actually do more harm to their cause than help it. It could make the owners decide that having a woman’s team is more trouble than it is worth and just sell it off. If that happens, they could find themselves in the same situation as the Comets.