Capitalism isn't evil. But when business takes advantage of labor you get unions. Baseball is taking advantage of minor leaguers via an exemption they shouldn't have. Cities, counties and states should also be telling MLB owners, "Build your own damn stadium."
RJM,
It's not so much business taking advantage of labor, it's the preposterous situation in which MLB and MLBPA, two parties with no obligation to look out for MiLB player interests, negotiate all the rules for minor leaguers' signing bonuses, draft, free agency, salaries, and work conditions.
MiLB players deserve a seat at the table; however, their youth, inexperience, MLB dreams, short career cycles and easy replaceability make MiLB players reluctant to assert their collective bargaining rights and difficult to organize.
With that background, which I think is quite accurate, one of the byproducts is the wage and hour litigation which is currently pending. For the most part, capitalism exists within a system of competition, not exemptions from competition. MLB is the opposite of capitalism in so many ways.
Just as Flood, followed by Messersmith and McNally eventually were successful in the challenge to the reserve clause, the current actions challenge a compensation system based in history and power, from one side only, and which is clearly collusive. I would bet that the cost of the payroll for a MILB team is close to a rounding error for each Milb team when compared to total revenue. What is so different from the reserve issue is the Milb players don't have power or resources.
While I think the position of the former and current Milb players has validity, I am not confident their position will get the result they hope to achieve. This may also end up being a situation where it is shown they don't have all the resources to run that marathon.