It shouldnt work like this...

[In My Memory]

Average salary for a player in the NFL:

According to USA Today, the median salary for the highest paying NFL team in the 2004 season (Pittsburgh Steelers) was $895,716. For the lowest paying team (San Diego Chargers) it was $453,800.

 

Median salary for an NBA player:

$2,165,000 for year 1999

 

Average salary for a college professor:

Average Salary

$34,400

 

Median Salary

$31,000

 

Average salary for special education teachers:

Median annual earnings in May 2004 of special education teachers who worked primarily in preschools, kindergartens, and elementary schools were $43,570. The middle 50 percent earned between $35,340 and $55,350. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $29,880, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $68,660.

 

 

Some of the most expendable and unimportant members of society the most overpaid, and the most important ones are paid so little. Even the lowest paid NFL player inexplicably earns 5x more than the highest paid college professor, and that makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

Are we just masochistic?

[entwined]

Sports, at least professional sports is just show business.

 

Much like film stars and television actors, professional athletes command a high price for their performance because their owners can get fans to pay high prices to watch them perform.

 

Also, their working lifespan is short compared to other professionals.

 

It is a matter of supply and demand. When the price gets too high, the demand -and the price- will go down.

 

But in as much as the advertisement cost of a 30 second ad during the last Super Bowl was around 1 million dollars, doesn't that put these wages in perspective?

[ecoli]

What's amazing to me, is that these sports stars are always trying to hold out for more money... jeez... don't they have neough? Why is it necesary to live in a mansion? Why don't they buy a regular house and invest the rest... or put it in a bank and save it for after their career is over.

 

When I read about all the old championship sports people, who blow all their money while their young and are forced to sell all their rings and trophyies just to put food on the table - it makes me laugh. I know I'm generalizing here, but what makes athletes less responsible with their money then anyone else? Hell, my dad started saving money for his children's college funds as soon as he got married and a real job... why is this a hard concept for people to grasp?

[gcol]

It is a matter of supply and demand. When the price gets too high, the demand -and the price- will go down.

 

In a nutshell. 'nuf said. No mention of pop stars and filmstars, they are in the same league. Objectors should vote with their wallets, perhaps by not supporting pop culture or going to the cinema for a start

[JohnB]

Sad isn't it?

 

I don't know about the US, but down here the "sports" also cry poor all the time and expect our governments to provide nice shiny venues for them. This little beauty cost the people of Queensland $16,000 for every man, woman and child in the state.

 

Our overpaid morons get to play there while our hospital Emergency wards are closing due to lack of funds. Mind you, considering what happened at the Bundaberg hospital, this may have been a blessing in disguise.

 

If you think you're health service is bad, have a read of this.

[ecoli]

In a nutshell. 'nuf said. No mention of pop stars and filmstars, they are in the same league. Objectors should vote with their wallets, perhaps by not supporting pop culture or going to the cinema for a start

 

unfortunately, big business has such a tight grip on the system, its impossible not to enjoy a movie, CD or game without feeding into their corporate paws... it's really not fair that way, but what 'ca gonna do?

[gcol]

Sad isn't it?

 

I don't know about the US' date=' but down here the "sports" also cry poor all the time and expect our governments to provide nice shiny venues for them. This little beauty cost the people of Queensland $16,000 for every man, woman and child in the state.

 

Our overpaid morons get to play there while our hospital Emergency wards are closing due to lack of funds. Mind you, considering what happened at the Bundaberg hospital, this may have been a blessing in disguise.

 

If you think you're health service is bad, have a read of this.

 

Same problems in the UK, and the cost to Londoners of their next Olympics, astronomical (Except property developers who as usual will make a killing).

[Severian]

You should all write to your Senator/MP to encourage more spending on education!

[Phi for All]

I'm doing my part. I stopped watching baseball when the players called a strike that cancelled the World Series in 1994. I stopped watching basketball when Charles Barkley announced that he was not a role model for kids and several fellow NBA millionaires agreed with him. And the final straw, the one I thought would crush me, was when the owner of the Denver Broncos announced that after all the years fans showed up (even when the team was crappy) he was going to move the team elsewhere unless we built him a new stadium with tax dollars (even though our baseball team had done the same thing with a bond and even paid it off early). I stopped watching football the same day he made that announcement.

 

I wasn't crushed after all. I found something to fill the gap sports left behind. I rekindled my interest in science.

 

Movie stars and pop stars don't affect my taxes and I can control what my kids see of them. They are also ACTING. Many sports stars behave like jerks, cheat and beat their wives, are fiscal nightmares and still get idolized. They also perpetuate the myth that you can play games, do anything you feel like, act anyway you want and live the high life.

[Pangloss]

I don't mind so much that popularism allows extreme examples of income. There are always going to be oddball examples like that in a free society. Good for them, I guess.

 

What matters is that we don't put enough emphasis on education and other critical areas. I don't think teachers should make millions of publically-collected dollars per year, but they should make a lot more than they currently do.

 

Oddly enough, the problem is not the amount of money we spend on public education in this country, which has grown steadily over the last 30 years. The problem is where we spend it, and the way we've shot ourselves in the foot with organized labor (teacher's unions).

[gcol]

You should all write to your Senator/MP to encourage more spending on education!

 

I pay too much bloody tax already, that would be like a turkey (or a sentient vegetable, for vegans) voting for Christmas/Thanksgiving or whatever.

[Pangloss]

By the way, years ago I ran across something that someone had written up describing how much money Michael Jordan was going to make in his last year with the Bulls. They had it all divied up by the minute and second, with cute little phrases like how much money he makes every time he passes the ball, or sits down on the bench, etc.

 

The punch line was that he would have to make that amount for 75 years to equal the net worth of Bill Gates.

 

The point being that there are plenty of opportunities to make money in this country. Let the athletes have their money -- it's not like they're taking it by force. There's plenty of wealth to go around. The problem isn't where we SPEND it, but where we DON'T spend it.

[-Demosthenes-]

Truly, if we could change as a society and not put so much value on watching these sports than it would be less profitable and they would be paid less. It's our own doing.

[insane_alien]

it used to be a football team(soccer for all you yanks) got a pint per person if they won a game and nothing if they lost. what happened to that.

 

EDIT: this is my thousandth post. i can't believe i missed it. i was hoping to make a really profound statement or something of the like to mark it but it has failed miserably. bugger. just have to make a good one for my 2000th post.

[Phi for All]

it used to be a football team(soccer for all you yanks) got a pint per person if they won a game and nothing if they lost. what happened to that.

AA.

[Jim]

Some of the most expendable and unimportant members of society the most overpaid' date=' and the most important ones are paid so little. Even the lowest paid NFL player inexplicably earns 5x more than the highest paid college professor, and that makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

Are we just masochistic?[/quote']

 

 

Ergh... can't... resist... posting..... :

 

I don't see the issue. If you are one of a few people that can provide a good or service demanded by millions, you are going to make millions. This isn't a function of American culture or a part of any moral question. This is simply, by definition, what always works whether the product or service is entertainment, tobacco, hoola-hoops, fried chicken or click-clacks.

 

My wife is a speech-language pathologist in a school system and, sure, she should get paid more. That, however, is an entirely separate issue from NFL player's salaries.

 

These players provide a service that generates billions of dollars of revenues every year. The only question is whether they should get the billions instead of the team owners. Millions across the country compete for these few slots and these men have proven themselves to be the best of the best. 99.9999% of the men who make this supreme effort fail and end up with damaged bodies.

 

Conversely, the team owners may have inherited wealth or managed to time the dot.com craze pefectly. No, I do not begrudge the few hundred players who are the best of millions this money. It is, after all, only money. (Lottery winners, however, really do tick me off.)

 

I also wonder if sports doesn't provide some sort of outlet for our evolved need to be in tribes. I can't tell you how elated I felt for two straight years when my Sooners made their way to the national championship game or how heart broken I was when they crumbled.

 

When you see a town explode with happiness when their team wins at a sport as boring as baseball, you have to wonder if something more than entertainment is being provided.

 

I didn't used to believe this. When I was a teen I was a debater in a school that won state football championships. When we won the state tournament, there was nary a ripple excpet the principal called us in to say in his office, "gee, i didn't know you guys were any good." I was once reamed by this same principal (who was not my pal at all) for writing an editorial asking how much money was spent on Gatorade by the school. I kiddingly founded a group called NOJOCKS ("No One in Juvenile Organizations for the Civilized Killing of Students").

 

All of this is to say that I've come to believe I gave short shrift to the value of sports to young people and society at large.

[hotcommodity]

It's unfortunate that the majority of Americans favor mindlessness over something intellectually stimulating- but that is probably the case with most societies. I'm not saying you're mindless if you watch sports.I'm saying that it's mindless to make sports a priority over something as critical as having an educated society.

 

The money someone makes is not based on priority but rather on demand for what they're selling- even if it is mindless or morally repulsive. Look no futher than rap stars. What contribution are they making to society? None what so ever. Do they deserve to be filthy rich? In my opinion, no. But do they appeal to masses of misguided children and the mentally declined? They certainy do, and this affords them the opportunity to make massive amounts of money. If you want to change this staus quo, you have to reshape society. How do you do it? Government perhaps? Who knows...

[gcol]

If you want to change this staus quo, you have to reshape society. How do you do it? Government perhaps? Who knows...

 

Change of government wont do it as a first cause. Governments chase the popular vote, or they aren't elected. The political establishment modifies its policies as much or as little as it dares while paying lip service to changes in public opinion, while throwing out the sea anchor of inertia. Only the perfect storm will produce a new party with a new way of thinking.

[john5746]

I guess we need to allow advertising in schools, especially with the advent of smart classes, where you would have an audience of many students. That way, business could fund education.

 

 

As far a entertainment, if the actors don't get huge wages, we would have poor quality entertainment, with ordinary, untrained people as actors doing stupid things... wait a minute

[Jim]

It's unfortunate that the majority of Americans favor mindlessness over something intellectually stimulating- but that is probably the case with most societies.

 

 

This is a false choice. I enjoy playing and watching sports but I also read almost every night both for myself and to one of my four kids. We just finished Book 1 of Lord of the Rings last night.

 

We are fundamentally the same species that migrated out of Africa a few hundred thousand years ago. A few thousand years ago we would slaughter or enslave any population we conquered.

 

Why would anyone expect human beings to instantly divorce themselves from the physical impulses which allowed them to survive and evolve? The best we can hope for is to channel those impulses towards violence and tribal loyalty into less violent forums. The guy who is wearing Packers war-paint on Sunday afternoons knows he's not going to sack a village but I think he's feeling some of the instincts that allowed modern man to evolve. Let the guy have his fun.

 

I play basketball every Thursday with a bunch of over 35 year old and its all good natured. I've a friend who plays that I"ve known since we were 13 but we didn't do anything together until we started playing bball. For guys, sports are part of bonding and it is satisfying to compete and sweat even if the play is ugly in the extreme. When first rate athletes compete, sports can be a thing of beauty.

 

It's all part of who we are and we cannot simply choose to deny it.

 

Jim

[hotcommodity]

The guy who is wearing Packers war-paint on Sunday afternoons knows he's not going to sack a village but I think he's feeling some of the instincts that allowed modern man to evolve. Let the guy have his fun.

 

I play basketball every Thursday with a bunch of over 35 year old and its all good natured. I've a friend who plays that I"ve known since we were 13 but we didn't do anything together until we started playing bball. For guys' date=' sports are part of bonding and it is satisfying to compete and sweat even if the play is ugly in the extreme. When first rate athletes compete, sports can be a thing of beauty.

 

Jim[/quote']

 

First of all, people who are over the age of 25 and still wearing paint on their faces are a waste of oxygen. People do those types of things not to have fun but to draw attention to themselves. They want everyone to know the mentality they've lowered themselves to and they do it in an effort to attract like-minded individuals-sadly.

 

I dont have a problem with guys getting together on Saturday to play sports.

But thats completely missing the issue of this thread. Clearly, what has been discussed here relates to to the mentality of society as a whole and also priorites. The mentality of this society is to place fun above all else, and that is simply wrong.

[Jim]

First of all' date=' people who are over the age of 25 and still wearing paint on their faces are a waste of oxygen. People do those types of things not to have fun but to draw attention to themselves. They want everyone to know the mentality they've lowered themselves to and they do it in an effort to attract like-minded individuals-sadly.

 

I dont have a problem with guys getting together on Saturday to play sports.

But thats completely missing the issue of this thread. Clearly, what has been discussed here relates to to the mentality of society as a whole and also priorites. The mentality of this society is to place fun above all else, and that is simply wrong.[/quote']

 

I certainly wouldn't wear face paint myself but I have been known to wear crimson and cream and lose myself amongst 80k+ screaming Sooner fans. When I see the face painters, I may laugh, but I wouldn't presume I know them as people well enough to label them "wastes of oxygen."

 

Certainly, the submersion of self in a group can be dangerous in other contexts. I may be sating primal urges to wear the colors of my tribe and to invade the neighboring tribe's choice real estate wheter it be their cave or vicariously by having strangers penetrate an end zone. I don't see what is wrong with tickling some of those primal urges.

 

I would suggest a less condescending viewpoint towards people that spend their entertainment dollar in ways with which you disagree. Are you really prepared to have all of your spending for entertainment analyzed to judge your "priorities?"

 

I addressed the issue of this thread - A capitalistic system that works will reward any provider of goods and services demanded by the masses. This isn't a moral issue or a comment on society. It is simply what happens.

 

I see this as no different than the millions that are made on fast food, designer clothes, DVDs, CDs, video games (surely, I've hit something you like by now), sex toys, snazzy automobiles, dirt bikes, etc etc etc. Our economy has produced wealth that can be spent on entertainment. It's really not a big deal what other people choose for their entertainment.

[hotcommodity]

 

I would suggest a less condescending viewpoint towards people that spend their entertainment dollar in ways with which you disagree. Are you really prepared to have all of your spending for entertainment analyzed to judge your "priorities?"

 

Yes I am as a matter of fact. I don't intend to change my viewpoint toward people who stifle humanity's progression with their callow opinions and lack of priority-sense.Keep in mind that the people you see wearing the face paint and screaming at the top of their lungs for no good reason also have the right to vote- quite frankly, that scares me. Maybe some people should be told what to spend their money on. I'd much rather see money go to feeding poor families or to teachers who make a difference in society than to have someone spend it on the latest football jersey so they can walk around and show everyone what a gullible tool they've become. Once again we've touched on the issue of priority. When people do not have the good sense to act civilized, society slowly but surely will decline-education is just the tip of the iceberg.

[pcs]

Are we just masochistic?

 

Nah, you just don't love the game enough.

 

Seriously, society can and does pay a helluva a lot less than ballplayer salaries to get what it wants out of profs and special ed teachers. Can't say I blame them; there's a helluva a lot of educators out there. Not that many A-list pro-ball players.

[Jim]

Yes I am as a matter of fact. I don't intend to change my viewpoint toward people who stifle humanity's progression with their callow opinions and lack of priority-sense.Keep in mind that the people you see wearing the face paint and screaming at the top of their lungs for no good reason also have the right to vote- quite frankly, that scares me. Maybe some people should be told what to spend their money on. I'd much rather see money go to feeding poor families or to teachers who make a difference in society than to have someone spend it on the latest football jersey so they can walk around and show everyone what a gullible tool they've become. Once again we've touched on the issue of priority. When people do not have the good sense to act civilized, society slowly but surely will decline-education is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

Heh, well, good for you. Personally, I'm loath to cast the first priority stone. I'd be afraid that I'd hit something that gives pleasure and texture to another's life. One man's dungeons and dragons is another man's football is another man's recreational novel is another man's posting on a bulletin board. I could have spent this time I spent in responding to your email in doing pro bono work. From many perspectives any of these activities could be viewed as wasteful.

 

The Khmer Rogue sure thought they had perfect priorities figured - just get all of those wasteful intellectuals, lawyers, doctors to do some honest farm work, get their priorites right, and a golden age would ensue. It's generally not a good thing when humorless and judgmental people come into power.

 

Sports help us bond, get catharsis and, something I highly recommend, to lighten up.