Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Do Professional Athletes Get Paid Too Much?
According to Cambridge Sports the average basketball player makes 2.2 million dollars year, the average baseball player makes 1.37 million a year, and the average football player makes 795,000 dollars a year. The question is do they deserve all the money? Lets think about other jobs that dont even make a quarter of that a year. Like for instance a firefighter only makes about 40,000 dollars year and a police officer makes about 29,000 dollars a year. http://www.cambridge.org/us/esl/strategicreading/images/6843_SRL1_U04_P09.01_sport.pdf Now lets think back to the tragic 9/11 terrorist attack. Were there any professional athletes that died trying to save thousands of lives? Umm my guess is no so in situations like that the question "Do professional athletes get paid too much?" arises. In my opinion there is no way a professional athlete should get paid that much. I mean lets think about it they get to travel for free, they get the best meals for free, and they get to play in about every city you can think of. To me it just doesn't add up. I mean firefighters and policeman put their life on the line everyday to make the world a better and safer place and what do they get for it? A salary that doesn't add up to have as much as an athletes does. I just dont get it. What do athletes do that makes them deserve that much money over someone who puts their life on the line ultimately for them? In my opinion athletes get to do whatever they want and they get paid so highly that they have enough money to go from vacation to vacation for the rest of their lives if they retire at the age of 30 some of them even sooner. I mean yes they do provide the best entertainment there is but for that money is questionable. If someone can come up with a legit answer on why athletes deserve this kind of money I will never question this subject again but until then I will disagree with the payroll of professional athletes.
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3 comments:
I wish I had a legit answer of why athletes deserve this much money, but I don't. There is no question about it, athletes are well overpaid. You made an excellent point of how the firefighters and police officers put their lives on the line to save others' lives during the 9/11 attacks.Now wouldn't logic or common sense say that people who put their lives on the line and at risk everyday would be paid more than people who can hit home runs or dunk a basketball.This is where society is backwards and obviously unfair.Firefighers and police officers don't even make a small fraction compared to the prime time athletes,which is just ludicrous.Firefighters and police officers are brave and courageous human beings. They lay it all out on the line everyday because if not it could cost them their lives or someone else's.Pro athelets do have a tremendous amount of pressure on them, but you cannot compare that to the pressure that firefighters and poilice officers go through. In sports wins and losses are at stake, but in these dangerous professions lives are at stake. Which is more important? This is a very easy answer. Athletes are more than overpaid and true heroes like police officers and firefighters are well underpaid.So Hammersmith I see exactly where you are coming from and I couldn't agree with you more.
Nick, this was a good article and I agree that police officers and firefighters are vastly underpaid. Personally I think there is a reason why police officers and fire fighters along with teachers and other proffessions that paid considerely less then they seam to be worth. The reason is those jobs are not meant for people to go into them for the money. Those jobs are for people who want to be there. Some people hate lawyers but go into law just for the money. By have a low salary those people who hold those jobs really want to be there and greatly appreciate it or there would be no other reason for them to be there. I agree that Atheletes get overpaid but we are a vast ways away from getting their salaries down because of moeny hungry agents. So time i guess will hopefully heal all.
I have a slightly different view on the topic of professional athletes being overpaid. The thing that most people do not realize is that sports provide many people with things other than just entertainment. The one argument that can encourage the high pay of athletes is the fact that they are the most popular role models for young boys and girls around the world. For many people, sports is a way to keep themselves out of trouble and headed down the right path. The fact that there is just the chance that a kid can make it big, and make a living playing sports might be just the thing that edges that kid toward going to football practice rather than going out to get drunk with his buddies. Now I personally feel that professional athletes are overpaid, but you cannot reject the idea that the dream of playing in the NFL, NBA or MLB, keeps thousands of kids off the streets and out of trouble everyday.
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