From: 160955r@garnet.berkeley.edu ()
Newsgroups: soc.culture.romanian
Subject: Steaua, Dinamo, Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday
Date: 28 Aug 1992 19:52:48 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: garnet.berkeley.edu

In article <l9sbc4INNau4@pollux.usc.edu> bucur@pollux.usc.edu (alexander bucur) writes:
 >In article <1992Aug28.070938.27241@kth.se> mihai@nada.kth.se (Mihai Dorobantu) writes:
 >I wonder anybody knows about the policies for drafting.  In the old times
 >such drafting policies gave an unfair advantage to Steaua and Dinamo since
 >any 18 year old athlete had to go either in Army, or in the Militia services.
 >The two biggest clubs were sponsored by them (Steaua by the army, Dinamo by
 >Militia), so they could always choose the best athletes.  They gave them
 >special treatment during service in exchange for joining their clubs.
 
Starting with the 1992-93 League Championship, all premier division clubs have to be professional clubs; this, in turn implies that all players have to be professional footballers. Draft does not play whatsoever of a role anymore.

 
 >If the policies have not changed other clubs in the country will never have
 >a chance in competing with Steaua and Dinamo in most of the sports.
 
Well,guess again! Policies HAVE changed and clubs in the country STILL lack sig
nificant chances when competing against Steaua and Dinamo.Explanation?Something
we call in economics "the initial endowment problem"-a fable not only for soc-
cer clubs and  professional players, but for the whole Romania as well:
 
        "Robinson Crusoe lived on an island by himself; he had slowly  learned
how to make best use of the island resources; he knew where to find the sticks
one needed to poke for turtle eggs; how to make a giant umbrella of goat skin 
to protect himself against the hot, equatorial sun; where only water source on
the island was  and a score of other things, ( like how to get money from the
IMF) which, if ignored or unknown would have made anyone's life on that island
absolutely and irremediably miserable.
        One day Friday arrives; he's young and strong and hard working; he also 
learns fast; a good man, in other words, as deserving of a good life on this 
Earth ' or, for our particular purposes, on that island  as  anybody else.
        Robinson Crusoe tells him:
        "Look son, I am a great proponent of  SLAVERY .It brought so many
wonderful things to  our world: the pyramids;  the Great Wall, the Taj-Mahal..
In short,  hard working people like you toiling under the inspiring leadership
of qualified people like me can achieve anything I can dream of!Besides,the only
way you can possibly survive on this capricious island of mine is through my 
help and knowledge, which do not come in cheap. In my magnanimity I shall allow
you to survive as my personal slave . You will be privileged to  do all the 
chores I direct you to do, all the hard,  demeaning work.You may also have to 
cheer gleefully whenever  you'd see me and also  write songs in my honor; and,
if anyone ever asked you how your life is (although I'm not planning to give 
them many a chance to do so) you'll have to use  one single simple word and
nothing else : Paradise!"
        As expected,  presented with such an offensive speech, Friday became 
truly incensed.
"First of all, he says, vrem sa stim si noi cine a tras in noi! (as if this had 
ANY relevance). Then, he  continues, I do NOT need your filthy help;and if you 
wonder why not ,  better read the brilliant work of great men such as ADAM 
SMITH, DAVID RICCARDO AND ALFRED MARSHALL.  By doing so, you may profitably 
find out  that FREE MARKETS is all what counts;  and when DEMOCRACY kicks 
in and we can VOTE, the sky's the limit!It puzzles me that although you know
I can benefit of all these you still want me to be your PERSONAL SLAVE! Ha!
Farewell to you, antiquated relic of  Stalinist times, you ignorant 
neo-Communist, you former nomenklaturist!" Actually Friday said a few other
things that can not be trusted to the public media... 
        So the infuriated Friday left Robinson on the beach and headed inland 
in search of a new life. Smiling to himself, Robinson lit his pipe (he alone 
knew the tree one could make smoking pipes of)  and  laid on his back  against 
the hot sand." Too bad this kid did stopped reading economic theory - had he 
pursued  this interest of his he may have stumbled into the writings of 
EDGEWORTH"  he said to himself in sotto voce.
        "That clever Englishman understood it ALL: free markets will allocate 
resources efficiently, as the other three had shown (and especially  Marshall)
What this means  though is that every factor of production will accrue economic
returns proportional to its marginal productivity. And I OWN all factors of 
production, pretty much like Steaua and Dinamo OWN best players' contracts, 
best management and best facilities in Romania (I forgot to mention that 
Robinson was an avid soccer fan). Therefore I OWN all returns in this economy.
Poor kid has no bargaining power whatsoever; the only thing he owns is himself 
and I already made him a very fair offer on that one, which he so foolishly 
rejected! He  fails to understand that given the INITIAL ENDOWMENTS I'd love to
play COMPETITION and DEMOCRACY with him! (Robinson thought of these two as 
variants of  the game of MONOPOLY). But why waste time and resources, when I 
already have all the chips? Why not ENSLAVE him from the very beginning, 
instead of going through all these complicated motions?"
        Trying to answer that many arcane questions at one time, Robinson did 
what we all tend to do in such circumstances: fell asleep,  on the peaceful 
beach. God knows how long he would have slept,his consciousness gently  
hibernating in tandem with the breaking ocean waves, had he not heard somebody 
coughing loud, obviously  on purpose.
        A sultry Friday, all gores and bruises , was looking  at him humbly.
        "Master, when do I start?"  asked  he, in an exhausted  voice.
        "On this one" grinned Robinson "we  need to  take a VOTE!"

Cheers!
  
 
-- 
Radu T. Tomescu at UCBerkeley
Department of Economics