You may have heard the old adage regarding teaching your kids about socialism: when they come home from Halloween trick or treating, take 50% of their candy and give it to someone else. There are various versions of this lesson that I'm sure you're familiar with. Georgia is now taking that to the proverbial next level.

A little background here: there has been growing momentum to pay college athletes. As usual it is a very small minority of people, they could actually make money off of their name image and likeness. A few football programs like Alabama, Clemson, Florida State, and others make a lot of money in football. There are some schools, like Gonzaga or Kentucky, they make a lot of money off of men's basketball. One or two schools make money off of women's basketball. But the vast majority of college level athletic teams do not make money. Paying athletes, who I have argued are already paid when they get a scholarship, would be a tremendous burden on already strained athletic department budgets.
As a practical matter, how many student athletes would actually make a lot of money off of promoting products or selling T shirts? I would be surprised if 5% could do so. My solution has been to pay all student athletes the same rate that any student is paid for a work study job. Generally, student athletes cannot hold down a part time job during their respective seasons. Most of them are limited to 24 hours a week practice time. If you pay student athletes the same as your paying the kids that work in the library, that would seem to be equitable. But of course, there are people who know better and look at that 5% as the norm.

Several states have passed legislation allowing student athletes to retain the rights to their name, image, and likeness and make money off of that while they are athletes at the University or college level. Florida and California are leading the way but Georgia recently passed a similar law with a twist. In Georgia the university or college can retain 70% of a student athlete's income off of endorsements or sales of memorabilia. The theory or justification is that money could be used to help fund the sports that are not high profile and would likely have very few athletes, if any, that could make money in a similar manner. That is socialism. It's kind of surprising from a state that just passed common sense voter reform.

And those left leaning sports pundits are crying foul. Why should someone else profit from the skill and ability and fame of another athlete? And these are the same people who scream about the colleges making money off of those very same student athletes. They're also the ones that say, all too frequently on sports radio, that we must tax the rich and have a universal basic income. But in typical liberal fashion, their principles are extremely flexible.