Sweet. I really love your logic. I am astrophysicist. There are 6+ billion people in the world, maybe 3 billion of whom are old enough to be astrophysicists (gender is irrelevant). There are ~3,000 PhD astrophysicists in the world, so we are each 1 in 1,000,000. Using your logic, we should then all be paid the approximately the same amount as the lowest paid NBA players, and certainly more than dentists. I like it!
Does the National Astrophysicists League earn billions of dollars based on Fan interest [i.e. buying tickets to their shows, buying their <INSERT ASTROPHYSICIST'S NAME] Jerseys/watching them do their thing on TV]? Rocket River
How much do you think the Steinbrenners will make this year? Do you think that amount is Crazy too? Rocket River
The top 1% in any profession gets paid very, very well. The top financial advisors make millions, the top actors make millions, the top chefs make millions, the top writers make millions, the top marketers make millions, etc... ...so why not athletes? I guess I think they are overpaid, but they deserve the money nonetheless.
Re-read the post I was responding to. First, you might realize that my post was a joke. Second, notice that he didn't seem to care that dentists were generating a lot of money. Under his system, pay was just based on how few people were doing the job.
American athletes who play football, basketball, and baseball make too much money, considering they really don't produce a whole lot for society.
What do at least 50% of the kids in America grow up wanting to be like? They idolize these athletes and play sports. Which in the end allows them to stay out of other non productive recreational activities. These athletes play a HUGE role in society.
People who say athletes get paid too much are stupid... but then again when certain athletes say stupid things like I can't feed my family (i'm sure everyone knows who that was) then they deserve to get b**** slapped... I personally think no they aren't overpaid.. if you have a problem with them making millions.. stop going to games or buying clothes and supporting the teams... and if you think that police/firefighters/EMTs should make more.. then next time there is a fire nearby.. you and a bunch of friends who have the same beliefs should go by and make signs and yell and cheer them on.. and ooo one of yall should sell beer and hotdogs.. oh and sign contracts with TV stations on who gets to cover the fire on cable and make money.. and give a good chunk to the fire department so eventually they can start getting paid more.. :grin:
You obviously aren't aware of the fact that there is a major shortage of dentists in the states...Texas is losing 700 dentists per year due to retirement and gaining about 400 new graduates a year...it'll be a health crisis soon enough.
What about the hundreds of millions of dollars that is generated from TV revenue that pays most of their salary, should the owners just keep most of that to themselves?
Which you could argue is a problem. Too many kids thinking they can be the next Jordan or Kobe and end up not being good enough, then they are stuck with crap education with nowhere else to go. It takes years to build up a reputation to even have a chance to go pro, it only takes one injury or one tremendously bad game to ruin your chances.
I agree with this take...there are tons of kids out there that push school to the side to play sports...and then are left with neither sports nor education.
On the other hand, there are kids for whom playing sports is their ticket into a good school. Most people can't get into USC with an 800 SAT score (or I guess 1200 now with the three sections). If someone along the ways gets through to them that most college athletes do not become pro athletes, then they have an excellent opportunity to get a great education for free.
Alex Rodriguez... over 200 million dollars contract. Brian Cardinal.. didint he cut a 5 year 40 mil deal? KELVIN CATO!?!?!?! Mo Taylor??? these guys all got lucrative contracts. NONE of these guys should be paid what they are. If you are an owner of a business making real decisions, you shouldnt be making 20 mil.
it's amazing that this is all that passes for value these days. municipalities can live without pro sports. there are more that do than don't. municipalities don't go without a fire department/police department/EMT. in fact...we wholly subsidize it publicly, because we know we can't go without it.
I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head. For why you can't compare pro athletes/super models/actors & ahtletes/and other entertainment professions (like in Las Vegas or even in your local town) to people who work for the city or county. 1. You can't compare workers from public services to high profile workers in a billion dollar industry. For the fact, that they are hundreds of thousands of people to fill the positions of teachers and police officers. They can be replaced based on pure statistics. How many people in the world can you find that can play competently at the NBA level (not many, with some of their own players not being quite capable enough)? 2. When comes to pro athletes and other celebrities or entertainment people, generally speaking they are the "products" in a sense. You've got people paying in a range of $25 to $40,000 to see Brittney Spears, Lady Gaga, or Jay-Z in concert, the same can be said for getting a ticket at a Lakers' or Cowboys game. Just even look at what some movies gobble up in one day at the box office. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/dal/2010.htm People are coming to see the talent or performers on the stage; field; or screen. So, we are kind of feeding the beast, especially with buy all of the products related to a performer; player; team; or celeb. 3. Someone like Angelina Jolie or Kobe Bryant, probably has fans in the millions. Especially, Kobe who is leading jersey seller World Wide in Europe; USA; and all of Asia (even China). So you can draw the conclusion that he, like alot of other top-notch athletes are the reason their sport is making so much money. This is all based on product endorsements from Nike and other corporations. Which is only the system at work. If you took away the payroll salaries of the top-notch athletes from their team or league, it's amazing that most of them would still be the richest players in their sport. It would be very hard to justify players not getting that money from endorsements. Look at golf players who win from their money from sponsored events, and are not receiving a salary of any sort from a league or team. It would be nice for what some posters suggested as to giving more to fans or putting more into community. That would be nice, but most of these are private institutions and businesses with private money, and I know some people would not like that because it would essentially socialism (or socialist principles) at work. 4. This argument is alot older than people think. I remember reading some thing one time about Chuck Bednarik complaining about the players' salaries, not modern day players, but players from the 60s ... more notably the rookies. Who were starting to make over 100,000 in one season for some. He was complaining about rookies making too much money, then. Remember, Joe Namath's first salary as a rookie and how much it was frowned upon, especially old timers.
