The NFL referees have been on strike. In their place the league has hired replacements in order to keep the season underway. Word on the street is that the replacements are doing a distinctly terrible job. Writes Ed at Gin and Tacos:
Since professional and amateur football have different rules — in some cases very different — the results have been predictably disastrous. From their failure to do basic things like spot the ball and operate the game clock to major rules of which they appear to be totally ignorant, they have proven thus far that there is nothing they can’t botch.
Others, too, are finding humor in their ineptitude.
Ed wonders if NFL fans are internalizing the economic lesson in this debacle:
In a surplus labor market you can always find someone willing to do a job for less, but they’re probably not going to do it well. Even the type of person who blames the work stoppage on the union… can’t deny that the end result is the replacement of trained, experienced professionals with a clown car load of knuckleheads who act like they’ve never seen a football before.
He concludes, suggestively: “maybe all human capital is not interchangeable …and maybe there are some noticeable downsides to a market in which whoever will work for the least gets the job.”
The NFL, being entertainment and all, isn’t the best example, but when we apply the same logic to occupations like school teachers and air traffic controllers, we should sit up and notice. Maybe at this moment, when something so beloved is at stake, it’ll raise America’s consciousness just a little bit. Ed, for what it’s worth, isn’t optimistic.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 7
rowmyboat — September 21, 2012
The NFL refs are locked out, not on strike. That's a big difference.
Yrro Simyarin — September 21, 2012
The NFL refs are getting a big help in that any college refs who want to move up to the next level are showing solidarity with them. If they were able to pull the refs from the SEC, PAC-12, and Big 10, there'd be fewer complaints. They're pulling people from Division-III college, high school, and lingerie football instead. Football is something of a special market, as there are only a very small number of referees working at a high level in the country.
The real economic lesson from this is that, as Steve Young pointed out, the market for the NFL is inelastic. People are still watching the games with worse refs. Therefore, the relative difference in quality of the refs doesn't matter in the short term. In the long term, if the lockout is still ongoing, they'll probably be able to train them up to similar standards.
Any time you replace labor there is a time period where you have to get the replacement up to speed. The real question for a business owner is how long that is going to take, and what the relationship between the reduced quality versus my costs in the meantime.
Gilbert Pinfold — September 23, 2012
He concludes, suggestively: “maybe all human capital is not interchangeable …and maybe there are some noticeable downsides to a market in which whoever will work for the least gets the job.”
Yes, very cheeky conclusion. Especially when you consider the implications for immigration.
Josh Mc. — September 24, 2012
You missed the big sociological point here: The NFL saw its first female referee ever because of the lockout! Labor unions are a big source of what Weber calls social closure which, in this case, adversely affects women's participation in the market. Unfortunately, few sociologists are willing to talk about such things.
tmiddleton — September 25, 2012
This is interesting. I was just on facebook and saw a post that said, "See what happens when unqualified, bottom dollar replacements are put in charge of football games? What do you think happens when they are put in charge of educating our children, protecting our neighborhoods, and caring for the sick and elderly?" While this may be a little drastic, it's a good example of how it took football to get people thinking about some important issues. I think it will be interesting to see if people are still concerned with the quality of workers that the cheapest dollar buys when the drama of the bad refs blows over.