Professional Athletes' Salaries --by Kang Guo, Leesburg, VA
Imagine yourself as Michael Jordan. In your 2001 season playing basketball, you make $300,000 a game or $10,000 a minute, assuming that you play an average of about 30 minutes a game. You will assume $40 million in endorsements, which is $178,000 a day (working or not). You will make $52,000 while sleeping every night, and make $618 boiling a five-minute egg. Saving for a $90,000 car, would take you twelve whole days. (www.murch-sitaker.org) The point is, professional athletes are paid a ridiculously large sum of money for simply playing a game. I believe professional athletes should be paid less.
I do not think professional athletes’ jobs are as important as protecting the environment or as important as jobs such as doctor or government official. Professional athletes get their money by playing games or advertising, while doctors are paid for treating seriously ill patients and the president is paid for making important decisions that affect all of us. There are many other jobs that are not being given high enough salaries, such as a teacher, that play an important role in our society. Most jobs are important to sustain the balance in our economy, but some jobs are more important than others. Society could function properly without professional athletes, but society could not function without people such as teachers, doctors, or a president. Could sports ever be more valuable than our youth’s education? The children really are our future, and we do not want to ruin it.
Professional athletes’ jobs are being overly recognized by society. With professional athletes being given such a high salary, I doubt there will be any children interested in professions such as teacher or doctor in the future. Without these jobs, society would crumble, and pro athletes would not be able to exist. Some of the most unexpectedly dirty jobs are the foundation of our society. Imagine if there were no farmers in the world. You would have to grow your own food. Think about how difficult that would be rather than going to the grocery store and picking up your weekly produce. If pro athletes were paid less, more people would consider other more important jobs. Imagine Tiger Woods playing golf on a green with no grass or Shaquille O’Neal shooting hoops on a basketball court piled high with garbage. This would be the result of not having any people working for pro athletes. Of course, that would not work, just like everything else in society if this were to happen.
Sports were and still are a highly valued part of our society. However, now there are more important things we need to deal with such as protecting the environment, and with a lot of money going to professional athletes, the government does not have much money to solve our problems. More money should be taken from the salaries of professional athletes, in the form of higher taxes, and be used for more important things such as building schools or funding education. Alex Rodriguez signed a contract for $252 million for a span over 10 years. Think about it, that kind of money would be enough to help the homeless and fund many other things as well. (www.123helpme.com) The most important things have to come first. Obviously, such things as education or protecting the environment are more important than our entertainment through sports. There would not be anyone who would put their entertainment before their job.
Most professional athletes do not appreciate how hard it is to make a living. Many live paycheck to paycheck, spending all of their money before they get more. Those pro athletes spend their money unwisely during their careers and end their careers seriously in debt with no money. They do not know how to manage their money, and so they should have higher taxes and should have a salary cap. Perhaps the athlete will learn to be more conservative when he is paid less. Plus, with all the debt they are making by spending too much on credit, companies will be losing money, because most likely, the pro athletes will not be able to pay them back. Boxer Mike Tyson was $38 million in debt. (www.ESPN.com) Higher taxes or a salary cap for pro athletes’ salaries can solve these problems.
Fans must realize that they are the ones buying $60 tickets, $100 jackets, and $20 caps. There is a lot of unfairly priced merchandise for sale at the stadium where pro athletes are shown playing their sport. Most of those profits made by selling those items go to the professional athletes. The only reason pro athletes are making that much money, is because their fans are supporting them. What the fans are not seeing is that the athletes want more money and do not care about the fans, just their money. Sometimes, pro athletes are not willing to play unless they get paid more, which proves that many pro athletes are just in the sport for the money. Professional athletes may take steroids because they want to be better so they can earn more money, not just play better. With pro athletes playing just for the money, the original purpose of recreation and traditional entertainment is defeated. Sports fans can help to prevent pro athletes receiving such a large salary by supporting their favorite pro athlete less. Even buying one less souvenir can help. By putting a salary cap for pro athletes, more of them will actually want to play because they enjoy playing, not the money that comes with it.
Some professional athletes can be bad role models for children. They recklessly spend money sometimes using all the money given to them by their paycheck and maybe more until the next paycheck comes. This negatively influences children to be reckless with their money using all their allowance until they get more, which does not teach them money management, which was the purpose of the allowance. Some pro athletes have taken steroids to enhance their playing ability to make more money. Jason Giambi of the New York Yankees admitted in 2003 that he had been taking steroids. (Source: www.ESPN.com) This is one example of a pro athlete who took steroids, and created a bad role model for the children. We do not want our children to be influenced to take steroids as well. When pro athletes have less money, they will not have the ability to be very reckless with their money or feel the urge to take steroids to make more money. Deduct more from pro athletes’ salaries, and it will solve this problem.
I think it is ridiculous that professional athletes get paid so much for just playing a game. In a society that rewards work with money, it is unfair to give pro athletes so much money for doing so little work. Some may say that pro athletes must train a lot every day, which makes their jobs difficult. But I believe that the difficulty of work is relative. What may be hard for a pro athlete could be easy for someone specialized in the area, just as someone who does not know how to play football would find it difficult to play pro in the NFL, or if someone who usually does not physically train often had to work out every morning for the rest of their careers. Professional athletes should at least be paid less so to prove that our society does fairly reward work with money.
With professional athletes being paid so much, I believe that the power balance in society is uneven. With more money, one has more power. In this case, power can be defined as the ability to influence people. Right now, the pro athletes are getting all that money and all that power, rather than the law enforcers or the government, who should be the relatively more powerful ones. The definition of government is the ruling authority for a community. The government deserves the power granted to it (if any). Pro athletes are not the ones who deserve that power and authority. Rather, law enforcers or government officials should have more power so to better manage our society. We cannot really benefit from the power given to pro athletes, but I am sure we will benefit more from power given to the government.
Are professional athletes being paid too much? I think it is quite obvious that they should be paid less; they are being paid unfairly in a society that rewards work with money. They are also overly recognized by society and do not really appreciate how hard it is for others to make a living. Some are bad role models for children and only play their sport because they want the money, not because they enjoy the sport. All of these facts suggest that professional athletes currently are being paid too much, and they also suggest that we would benefit more if professional athletes were paid less and had higher taxes. Lastly, think about this: If Michael Jordan was not a professional athlete, would he have all that money or be as famous as he is now?
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