The errors of definitions multiply themselves according as the reckoning proceeds; and lead men into absurdities, which at last they see but cannot avoid, without reckoning anew from the beginning.

Organize a fantasy football league with eight (8) to twelve (12) of your friends. The geographic location of your friends is irrelevant, since there are many websites today that offer the means to host your fantasy football league, as well as a method of communication. Although there are many good sites out there, some of the readers of Atlas Blogged use My Fantasy League.

For the most part, you can use whatever fantasy football rules that you desire. But the critical part of this experiment is to have a “Keeper” league that allows the fantasy owners to keep three players of his choosing each year. For example, in your inaugural draft, each owner/coach gets to “draft” players to his team, for a total of 16 NFL players per roster. Each year, after the season ends, all but three players are released back into the draft bucket for next year. The three remaining, the Keepers, are presumably the players with the highest scoring potential. The Indianapolis Colts’ Peyton Manning is an example of a typical Keeper.

To reiterate, personal results may vary, but by using this system, you should be able to separate your friends into the capitalists and the socialists within three years, and possibly as early as two. And the results may surprise you.

How does this work? For whatever the reason, be it a better initial drafting, a greater knowledge of sports or football, previous experience with fantasy leagues, luck, or whatever, it will become immediately obvious that some people are better than others at fantasy football. More times than not, however, the measure of how one performs in fantasy football is largely dependent on how much effort and energy is put forth towards the game. Those who do their homework and study the draft, perform mock drafts, study the waiver wire, and keep abreast of NFL news will invariably perform better in fantasy football. Thus, the equation is the same in the game as it is in life: harder work = greater reward.

This, of course, is a socialist’s bane, who feels that equality and outcome should be guaranteed, regardless of any other factors. So the hidden socialists of your fantasy league may tolerate a team performing badly for one year, but will not stand for it two years in a row. The socialists of your league will begin, by the second year, petitioning the league commissioner (who is equivalent to the government, in our scenario) for hindrances (taxes) on the teams that are performing well, and benefits (subsidies) to the teams that are performing poorly. For, to the socialist, forced parity trumps free-market competition. A laissez-faire fantasy football league is unfair to those who put less effort into it, according to your newly-outed socialist friends.

The true libertarians of your league will be the ones who – regardless of how their team is performing – prefer going winless over having a heavy-handed league commissioner (aka government).

In the league to which I belong, the socialists and the capitalists are almost divided evenly, regardless of a coach’s winning percentage over the last three years. In fact, it’s almost uncanny how those who favor wealth redistribution (i.e. contriving new rules to mandate outcome) are registered Democrats, whereas those who favor the laissez-faire, free-market fantasy football league are registered with anti-collectivist political parties.

Try it for yourself. It’s fun, and revealing. Just don’t let the socialists of your league wrest Edgerrin James from your roster unless you’re well compensated.