Monday, February 7, 2011

Are Professional Athletes Overpaid?

Our society applies immense prestige to people with a lot of wealth. People who inherit money, who create immense businesses, or who become celebrities are respected and idolized regardless of the positive or negative impact that they're lifestyle has on the world. Due to our culture's obsession with this prestige, we have a strong drive developed over centuries to work hard and earn a lot of money. Contrary to the idealism of the American Dream, though, not everyone can achieve that level of wealth and most don't even come close. Some people can work behind a cash register their whole life surviving off of minimum wage and even if they volunteer, make meals for the homeless, and share their roof with those that have none, society won't lift them up. Meanwhile, an athlete can play a game for a few decades and not benefit humanity much at all, but comes out the end as a celebrity and a millionaire. To me, being "overpaid" means making a disproportionate amount of money compared to the amount that you help your neighbor.

If you make millions of dollars annually throwing a ball down a football field and then spend the off season floating on your yacht, you're not really helping anyone and I don't see why you should have all that money in your pocket. We live in a world where some people can fly private jets to distant corners of the earth and consume great feasts while other people wake up on an average morning and know they might not eat that day. The dichotomy between the wealthy and the poverty-stricken is absurd and I think it's inhumane that our nation puts on expensive events like the Super Bowl while countless people are dropping dead in far off lands from preventable causes. A monetary system is inherently unsupportive of these people, because despite our faith in the goodness of humanity, there's not really a way out for the starving masses in this country or in others. The wealth of nations and corporations shouldn't be spent continuing a facade of harmony by making millionaires out of athletes while the most basic needs of life are overlooked in the squalor of the poor.

1 comment:

  1. You do a nice job of establishing the issue in that first paragraph so that we understand the underlying problem you address in the second paragraph. Important to consider, as well, is that the Super Bowl occurs while "countless people are dropping dead...from preventable causes" not just in "far off lands", but in the very place the Super Bowl occurs (no doubt, each year, in the same city in which it occurs), so the problem is immediately close to home. You do, however, acknowledge this later on.

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