How did we reach the point where b-ball players can make up to 400,000 dollars per game?

@zensky: “But we all train/study and work hard. How much do you make an hour?”

Some capitalist is about to scold you for even talking about this. I suspect “It’s all about the market, commie. What’s next – why don’t teachers make enough money?”

Note: I am not that capitalist. I think it’s pathetic, and I feel it should be one of those things that makes us go “oh yeah…maybe we value the wrong things, and our economic system is sh*t”. But what do I know.

You are correct @tom_g of course – but at one point shouldn’t we all just pause and say – shit, it’s a fucking game of basketball. Why does this t-shirt cost a hundred bucks? Why are tickets hundreds of dollars? Why are these sneakers a thousand dollars? Why fuck why?

Why do I know the stats of a neanderthal with a good jump shot and not this year’s Nobel prize winner for literature?

Some capitalist is about to scold you for even talking about this. I suspect “It’s all about the market, commie. What’s next – why don’t teachers make enough money?”

Fuck that guy.

As for why baseball tickets cost hundreds of dollars, it is all because people are willing to pay that much.

Theater is subsidized – opera can barely scrape by. But to see a few guys running around with a ball…??? Every generation gets a little stupider.

The kid from Two and A half Men got 300K per episode.

“Jones signed a contract in 2010 guaranteeing him $7.9 million over two seasons (26 episodes), plus a $500,000 signing bonus, amounting to $300,000 per episode of Two and a Half Men, making him the highest paid child star on television, until he turned 18 in October 2011.”

Sometimes it is because of the fact that those few people are so important to the event that they have enormous power when it comes to negotiating a salary.

@johnpowell another great example.

Phi – we – the stupid public – give them this power.

Kinda fucked up he will make more in a week than the person taking your order at Burger King will make in 20 years.

Yes, Ryan, but the talent – the talent.

OY.

Probably just had the right parents.

Like the cast of Jersey shore?

What is wrong with us?

Any honest response I make to that will piss Allie off.

The whole world seems to be obsessed with sports & the people who play sports. I do not understand the appeal of sports, especially football, basketball, & baseball. Too many people appear to be willing to become as obsessed as the audiences of the ancient Roman gladiator games & archeology has shown that some of the gladiators became very wealthy (if they survived). Our value systems seems to skewed. We place more value on being entertained than we do on our educators. Why else would anyone watch something as ridiculous as Jersey Shore or any of the other so-called reality shows? We really need to get our priorities straightened out.

Part of it is hype. As a species, we’re born hero-worshippers, and the community aspect of having a favorite team is powerfully appealing. That’s what gets people in the doors, what gets them paying ludicrous sums for memorabilia or tickets, what has them glued to the TV.
The rest is simply a matter of scale – you’re taking in more money, so it’s only natural that your performers would want a larger cut. Similar forces are present in the performing arts as a whole. And once you’ve scaled up the income, you start getting the same kind of bidding wars that exist (in different forms) throughout the working world.

So basically, we’re here because we’re human.

@Linda_Owl said it best: it’s all about priorities or, in this case, the lack of priorities.

I just don’t get it anymore and, frankly, it not only pisses me off but also makes me really sad and sick to my stomach to see these people getting paid exorbitant amounts of money to do…what exactly? Especially considering that a vast majority of people in this country is struggling to just scrape by…

I think it is crazy the amount of money they make, but I have to admit I love the game. We just moved from a town that had an NBL (aussie version of NBA) and we always went to home games. We also had a rugby team and went to most of those games as well. When you come right down to it though, if someone has an amazing and rare skill and that skill is in demand then the pay packet will follow.

I agree about the reality tv shows though, I just don’t get them at all or see any appeal.

I am probably some kind of Communist because I have little faith that the capitalist system works for the benefit of mankind. It seems wrong that bankers should receive bonuses of millions of pounds when the banks they run are not only guilty of wrongdoing but are so ineptly run they are losing billions of pounds each year. It doesn’t seem right that sportsmen and celebrities should earn millions of pounds when hard working men and women trying to make a life and raise children are working for a minimum wage. But that is what the capitalist system does. It tends to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. It is a distortion of human values and only appears to have been successful because society has become so much wealthier overall. Some will say this achievement is due to the capitalist system and perhaps it is but we are not all going to go on getting wealthier forever. We need a system that is fair and the markets are not fair. The markets are not even human.

Because entertainment’s where it’s at….baby!

It is a fact though that most of the basketball players in particular were not rich to begin with. They took advantage of their own skill and the way of the world and became rich. Many were dirt poor to start. And really there always were and always will be those who have some sort of ability to excel and I see no reason why they should not receive the benefits of their hard work.

I wish I were 7 feet tall and good at bball! I am sure most who complain about the pay packets of athletes etc. wouldn’t be doing so if they were receiving them. And most of these guys are very generous with their time and money. And hopefully anyhow, they are paying the taxes on all that loot.

@flutherother If I were you, I would entrust the benefit of mankind to something other than economics. Rather, work for a culture that rewards generosity and fair dealing.

Someone (probably @Thammuz or @Fyrius) once said to me that you cannot legislate morality. At the time I riposted with the point that all legislation is someone’s morality, but within the context of this issue I see another application: it is not possible to make people moral with legislation, or its bedfellow, economics. One must effect a change within the person so that they stop looking for loopholes to suck benefit through.

And try not to say things like “it only appears to have been successful because society has become so much wealthier overall,” since that’s sorta the hallmark of a successful economic system.

@Nullo Capitalism has been very successful, but these successes have blinded us to its faults. Capitalism has been great for exploiting new resources and because we have benefitted so much we have come to think of Capitalism as a force for good. I think this is a mistake as economic systems are without morality and should be reigned in through legislation.

Legislation can reflect morality. As Herbert L Samuel said: “the premises of politics lie in the conclusions of ethics.”

@flutherother I shall try again.
Laws are like fences, particularly in the way that there’s always a way around them. We must either craft a legal Dyson Sphere of these fences, which will likely hamper innocent people, or else work on changing people.

@Nullo Legislation is not a substitute for morality but it is a way in which morality can be expressed however clumsily and ineffectively. We can’t legislate for morality, but morality can inspire our legislation. I don’t feel we are in disagreement.

I’d like to share some of Andy’s takings! Tennis players make pretty good money too!