Big Carbon Footprints for the Elite, Missed Soccer Matches for the Peasants

Thanks to Instapundit for drawing attention to this Financial Times report showing how ultra-rich elitists and politicians flew to South Africa on private jets, which meant both big carbon footprints and also resulted in ordinary people missing a key soccer match because the airport was too cluttered for commercial aircraft. The Hypocrite-of-the-Year Award goes to Leonardo DiCaprio, who piously lectures ordinary people about how they should be good environmentalists (translation: pay higher energy taxes and reduce travel), but then engages in Al Gore-style global jet setting.

Hundreds of fans bound for Durban for the Germany-Spain World Cup semi final missed the game because their flights were unable to land, after air traffic authorities closed the city’s airport because of congestion on the runway caused by private aircraft. ...Wire services reported that among the VIPs heading for the semi-final by jet were Spain’s King Juan Carlos, South African President Jacob Zuma, actor Leonardo DiCaprio and socialite Paris Hilton. The BA pilot, who held his plane for around 45 minutes above Durban in the vain hope of getting a landing slot, told passengers he had no choice but to take the plane to Johannesburg because the plane’s fuel was starting to run low. He announced that the problem was caused by the airport allowing too many private jets to land at Durban, leaving the runways clogged up and unable to accept scheduled flights. Confusion was heightened at OR Tambo airport by the lack of any senior officials to explain the problem. One junior official said she believed around 15 scheduled flights, mostly from Johannesburg, were unable to land in Durban.

At Least We Made if Farther than France

I'm not a soccer fan, but I'm nonetheless disappointed that the American team lost. Having said that, at least we got farther than a certain team from a socialist nation (not that we can point too many fingers in that regard considering what Bush and Obama have done). So in honor of the World Cup, here's an image of a recent Wall Street Journal story.

Supply-Side Economics 1 - Gordon Brown's Class-Warfare Tax Policy 0

For the first time in my life, I enjoyed reading a story about soccer. But not because of the sport, but rather because it is very amusing to read about the exodus of top-flight players from England's Premier League as they escape Prime Minister Brown's spiteful increase in the top tax rate. The Weekly Standard has the amusing details:

The English Premier League has dominated European soccer in recent years. Nine of the last 12 Champions League semifinalists have come from the Premier League, and an English team has been in the final for each of the last five years (two played each other for the trophy in 2008). The Premiership's top teams--Manchester United, -Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool--are four of the sport's ten glamour franchises, and the league is easily soccer's richest. Yet over the last few months, star players have been rejecting offers from the Premier League hand over fist....Why have players been rejecting hefty fees to play in the world's most celebrated soccer league? It's all Gordon Brown's fault. In April, the British government passed a measure that increases Britain's top tax rate from 40 percent to 50 percent. The enormous hike applies not just to wealthy soccer stars (the average base salary for a Premier League player is £1.1 million a year) but to anyone making over £150,000. When the tax increase first passed Arsenal striker Andrei Arshavin demanded that the team renegotiate his contract, calling the hike an "unpleasant surprise." Ronaldo's agent noted that it would mean an extra £670,000 a year in taxes for the star (who was then still with Manchester United). Arsène Wenger, the manager of Arsenal, matter-of-factly explained that the higher taxes would decimate British professional soccer. "[W]ith the new taxation system, with the collapse of sterling, the domination of the Premier League on that front will go," Wenger told the Times of London. "That is for sure." The move is part of Brown's effort to soak the rich in order to make up for revenues lost in the recession. Three-hundred thousand Britons will be affected by the increase, which is expected to raise an extra £2.1 billion. Which hardly seems worth the bother, because Brown's plan also involves borrowing some £600 billion over the next five years and bringing Britain's public debt to 79 percent of GDP by 2013. The result is that Britain's tax rate is now the highest in the professional soccer world. In Italy, players pay 43 percent on income. In Germany, 45 percent. In France, 40 percent. In Russia, only 13 percent. But the real winner is Spain. Spain's top tax rate is 43 percent. In 2005, however, Spain amended the law to include a provision for high-earning "foreign executives," which would require them to pay only 24 percent. ...Deloitte Sports Business Group estimates that between the falling pound, the higher British tax rate, and the Spanish tax break, U.K. clubs would have to pay 70 percent more in order to match a player's take-home pay in Spain. Predictably, no one is happy with the situation. British papers are full of stories lamenting the demise of the Premier League. Also predictably, Britons seem more outraged by Spain's lower tax rate than by the increase in their own. ...the purveyors of goo-goo pan-Europeanism have been affronted, too. Michel Platini, president of the Union of European Football Associations, claimed that there was something "abnormal" about the influx of talent to the Spanish league. "These transfers are a serious challenge to the idea of fair play and the concept of financial balance in our competitions," Platini told reporters.