the political economy of golf

Tom Lehman TLehman at lor.net
Mon Nov 13 14:51:12 PST 2000


There's probably more Chem Lawn dumped on the street that I live on than any golf course around here, and I live on a short lane that ends in a cul de sac. Matter of fact I'm one of the few around the neighborhood here that doesn't have their lawn treated by Chem Lawn. If your wondering what Chem Lawn is, it's a lawn care company that sprays fertilizer and weed killer on lawns from a tank truck.

Sure, if you live in an arid or semi-arid area then fertilizer, weed killer/bug killer and water are used up by golf courses in massive quantities. Around here that's not that big of an issue. There are at least 70 or more golf courses within an hour or so drive of here.

A lot of Steelworkers play golf. The reason for this probably is because 60% or more of Steelworkers work rotating turns and have their days of during the week or finish up a night turn and play golf in the morning or early afternoon after working a night turn. Compared to a steel mill a golf course is paradise!

Tom Lehman

Rob Schaap wrote:


> G'day Tom,
>
> >Here's what some co-workers of mine were passing around on one of my temp
> >assignments:
> >
> >When workers get together they often talk about football.
> >When middle management meet, they talk about tennis.
> >When top management meet they talk golf.
> >Conclusion: The higher you climb up the corporate ladder the smaller your
> >balls become.
>
> Yeah, but that bit about degrees of individualism fits this, too, no? That
> and the fact you need less money to play footy than tennis, and less to
> play tennis than golf. And golf courses are, by the way, more than
> ecologically 'suspect'. They are an absolute curse! Precious land,
> millions of gallons of clean water, and the deployments of all kinds of
> concentrated nutrients (which change their character to that of pure poison
> when the become run-off). I admit I'm a disgraceful golfer (I lose more
> balls than Tiger Woods has shots), but that ain't my only reason for
> resolving to close down all golf courses when Max makes me Commissar for
> World Sports.
>
> Cheers,
> Rob.



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list