My co-conspirators David Dayen and Bob Kuttner have written excellent pieces today on how Donald Trump’s ability to avoid taxes illustrates the plutocratic bias of our tax code, which is primarily devoted to enabling the rich to get richer. I have no such systemic deep dives to offer our loyal readers, but I do want to highlight one aspect of The New York Times’ revelations about the president’s finances: how his golf courses have helped wipe him out.

As the Times recounts, Trump made a mint on his series The Apprentice, simultaneously setting the bar for falsified reality shows. He then invested that mint in no fewer than 11 country clubs, perhaps in the belief that soaking the status-conscious rich for their dues was an easier way to make money than stiffing the contractors and workers on his construction projects.

Turned out it wasn’t. Trump has taken a bath on his golf courses, with Miami’s Doral leading the way down.

I don’t profess to be an expert on the finances of golfing establishments. Until the Times posted its story, when I thought of golfing finance what came to mind were sentiments such as "Bet ya five you blow that putt."

Now that I’ve been compelled to ponder this subject, however, it occurs to me that there are countless municipalities that own public golf courses, and I don’t know of one of them that has accumulated the kind of monetary misfortunes that Trump’s accrued due to its public provision of affordable golf. Trump may well be singularly inept when it comes to the country club business, but it also may be that golf—like the national defense, health insurance, and education—is better entrusted to the public sector than the private. It’s certainly better entrusted to the public sector than it is to a megalomaniacal wannabe tycoon like Trump.