A Global Social Support System: What the International Community Could Learn From the United States' National Basketball Association's Scheme for Redistribution of New Talent.

Gorik Ooms,David Stuckler,Martin Mckee,Sanjay Basu

doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2015.126

Abstract

If global trade were fair, it is argued, then international aid would be unnecessary and inequalities inherent to the economic system would be justifiable. Here, we argue that while global trade is unfair, in part because richer countries set the rules, we believe that additional interventions must go beyond trade regulation and short-term aid to redress inequalities among countries that will persist and possibly worsen in spite of such measures. Drawing on an example of measures taken to redress the characteristics of a system that inherently increases inequality, the ability of dominant teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) to recruit the most talented players, we argue that market-based competition even in the context of fair rules will create and amplify economic inequalities. We argue that, just as the NBA created a draft to reduce the emergence of severe inequalities among teams, systems of social support within richer countries should be paralleled by a global system to counterbalance persisting inequalities among countries that are produced by market forces. We explain how such a mechanism might operate among integrated market economies, and identify the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) as an example of such an emerging form of global social support.

Highlights

Rules, Redistribution, and the National Basketball Association Draft Professional sports teams that win have at least 2 advantages over losing teams in the subsequent season: (a) better starting conditions; and (b) greater ability to maintain their lead, as they earn more money than poorer teams to recruit new players with higher salaries
Social support programmes include investments in job creation and retraining, theoretically enabling individuals and firms to develop talents and use them for their personal prosperity and—through taxation—to produce further social support systems for the prosperity of their compatriots. Such redistributive measures are largely absent from the global economy, which envisages that progress will come about primarily from free trade, with explicit redistribution limited to time-dependent and, in the scheme of things, relatively small-scale aid
When considering a dilemma being discussed around the world—should efforts to accelerate the reduction in global inequalities mainly focus on fair regulation of the global market, as in “fair trade not aid,”[20] or aim to establish a global social support system between countries, as in ‘fair trade and better aid’— we can learn from the history of rich countries

Summary

Introduction

Redistribution, and the National Basketball Association Draft Professional sports teams that win have at least 2 advantages over losing teams in the subsequent season: (a) better starting conditions (such as possession of the top players and coaches); and (b) greater ability to maintain their lead, as they earn more money than poorer teams to recruit new players with higher salaries. Modest Beginnings of a Global Social Support System Unless the global trade system that creates massive inequalities can be countered, progress towards future sustainable development goals (SDGs) will be limited.

Results

Conclusion