As the wealth gap widens between the rich and the poor. Why do companies and corporations seem not concerned that before long there will be very few people left that can actually afford their goods and services?

Short-term Because the people at the top know it’s a pyramid scheme and already have their exit strategy in place once they are done looting everything.

Long-term goods and services will fluctuate with supply and demand and what gives those people at the top power is our need for those goods and services. Once we can’t access them it all comes toppling down. It’s destined to fail eventually since resources are finite.

To paraphrase Milton Friedman “the welfare of the people is not the business of capitalism”

Soooo if the increasing share of the money goes to the top leaving consumers with nothing to buy your goods? Why lend the chumps the money, pocket the interest leaving them in debt and you with even more of the available money and complaining about the growing numbers of folks forced onto the public dole. But even that dole is an arrangement to finance capitalism and further concentrate wealth. The truth of this is readily apparent with a quick glance at where all that money doled out to the elderly, disabled, indigent, uemployed, etc.- where does all that money wind up? That’s right! Those folks in the middle are merely the conduit to transfering money from the Federal treasury to those at the top while the public debt inexorably climbs. And who exactly is it collecting all that interest on financing that debt? Right again!

So there you have it. It’s a landscape where all the carts laden with wealth are confined to those roads leading to the mansions, and once this is appreciated, there’s no need to discuss what’s headed our way on the streets to your place or mine.

@SQUEEKY2 You’ve done a perfect job of understanding and explaining the fallacy of trickle-down economics. The concept’s always been short-sighted and motivated by greed.

Greed doesn’t care about the future of the company.

The people making the big bucks will get a golden handshake on the way out no matter what happens.

The real comedy will be when all the money they have becomes worthless and they lack the skills to compete in a post-USD world.

Maybe that’s just my personal fantasy…

You know, I don’t know if that’s true. There seem to be plenty of people waking around with Obamacare and government assistance that also are carrying smartphones, have gel nails, and rocking Air Jordan’s.

People that are irresponsible with money will always spend it on frivolity before necessity.

Lots of poor people have lots of stuff. Stuff is easy to come by.

I got a brand new smartphone two days ago FOR FREE by switching my $35 service from t-mobile prepaid to Boost prepaid. My last phone was a $10 promo special.

I could, if I were interested, have gel nails free tomorrow. I have a couple of friends who do nails for a living and have offered free manicures. I used to have my hair cut, again for free, by a professional beautician.

Shoes are SO easy to come by second hand.

The fact that someone isn’t wearing sackcloth and ashes doesn’t mean they aren’t poor.

@Seek I agree. But I disagree that the majority aren’t taking advantage of the system and my tax dollars. 40% of my clients are on welfare with Obamacare, so I think I have a strong perspective on this.

I know I’m thrilled about barely surviving month to month on benefits instead of the beautiful home I lost when hubby and I both lost our trades in the 08 crash…

In fact, I spend so much of my days wondering where I’m going to spend my allotted $4 per day on food that sometimes I never even make it to the discount grocery store.

It’s bliss. Utter bliss.

All you need to do is show up at the ER several times a week and they will provide you a hot meal (or two) free of charge.

Heck, bring the family. They’ll feed them, too, if you all check in.

Wow.
You know, I heard about this French lady who got her head cut off for saying things like that.

You know @AdventureElephants I find your reply to @Seek somewhat offensive, but truly spoken like an ill informed diehard right wing Rep/con.
But most of you would rather die with your over priced private health care system, than adopt a universal health care system that looks after every one, not just those that can afford your wonderful over priced health care insurance.

Sure, maybe. I’m all for Universal healthcare if it will get me out of paying $7000 a year for my insurance (oh, and I can only see my doctor 6 times a year before my copay goes up) while I watch people visit the ER 80+ times a year for “the sniffles,” a hot meal, a cab voucher home, and drugs.

You can find my opinion as offensive as you want. I find the high rate of abusing the system offensive as hell. Universal healthcare that provides for such abuse of the system instead of overhauling insurance is creating this mess, not me. I have every right to be angry when my Sig Other and I cannot afford vacations or children because I pay more than 1/6 of my annual salary for insurance… That I dare not use because my deductible is an additional 7% of my annual income.

And if you choose to take my statement of my regular observations personally I apologize. Obviously there are those that don’t abuse the system. If you fail to acknowledge that there are many that do, well, then you just aren’t able to see or hear that well with your head in the sand.

@Seek For the record I lost 48% of my net worth in the crash in 2008. I’ve never recovered. I went without a car for over a year and walked to work. I was let go and on unemployment for a bit. So I don’t respond from a pedestal. I respond from hard work and experience.

Sorry, @SQUEEKY2, but I need to unfollow this before I start saying what I think.

@AdventureElephants
I too take grave offense at your comments, lumping all people on some sort of aide as being free wheeling spendthrifts abusing the system, and people are not served hot meals in the ER unless they are admitted for something serious enough to be admitted for. What planet are you from anyway. I am in @Seek ‘s camp here 10,00% as another person who was wiped out and left destitute in this economic shit storm between 2010 and 2013. Yes, I am getting medi-cal right now because after losing my business, plowing through my life savings over a 3 year period of no employment and now, filing bankruptcy after freaking DECADES of being a solvent, middle class person.

At age 56 I can’t afford to not be insured and filing a bankruptcy is humiliating enough without worrying about accruing some monumental medical bill that I would never be able to pay off in my life time.
I don’t know who you are or where you live or what kind of “clients” you are dealing with, but if you spoke of me like that, a bright, decent person who was filleted like a freaking tuna fish in the last 5–6 years, well….I just might lose my usual diplomatic composure and scalp you on the spot. Bully for you, you walked to work, lucky you have a job to walk to, many hard workers do not and haven’t for years now.

@Seek No worries, looks like I just did. haha

<sigh> Apparently only one of us can voice an opinion.

Two points: I most certainly did not lump all people on some sort of aide as being freewheeling spendthrifts. So if words are being put in my mouth because you are sensitive to the fact that you got burned then what can I do. I already said I got burned, too. I don’t have a problem with Medicare, I have a problem with the abuse of Medicare. Unless you are a case worker then I wouldn’t expect you to have statistics on the number of visits per year broken down by insurance type. Why would you bother to research that if you aren’t abusing it. Plenty of people are, you can take my word for that or not. Clearly you won’t.

Second point: you are just flat out wrong about the things that are provided upon request in the ER. A hot meal is definitely given.

So everyone be offended. If I am not allowed to vent here when I also have to sit and listen to clients tell me about their holiday vacations when I can’t afford to take one but somehow with no job they can, sue me. Sometimes one needs to get things off of their chests. Sometimes I want to explode when one of my clients is pregnant again when they can’t afford what they currently have without assistance. It does get to you.

So again, put words in my mouth that Inam talking down on everybody on government assistance or try to listen to what I am actually saying. Trust me, I wouldn’t have the job I do if I didn’t see the need for government assistance. It’s trying to get people to use it correctly that can be a struggle.

It is very hard, in some cases, for people to use assistance correctly. The for-profit medical system in the US the very high priced and not as effective (in terms of the number of patients served) as other countries with a socialized medical system. Both the providers and the insurance companies are in it to make money for their Wall Street investors. Typically they like to see 8 to 12 percent returns, so that could easily add 10 to 20 percent to the basic cost.

The folks who use the ER in excess may have no other options left to them. Whether it is the sniffles or just in need of a hot meal, we as a society should be providing those through other venues that do not cost thousands per visit. Cheaper to provide walk in clinics, urgent care facilities, and food service to those in need.

But those services do not make enough profit for investors.

@Inara27 Well said. It is true that they have no other options, that is not my complaint, either, although I agree it should be remedied. But unless you are terminally ill I see absolutely no reason to visit the ER 30+ (sometimes waaaay more than that) a year. That is abuse of the system, plain and simple.

And private insurance fucks my bank account raw, for sure. There has to be an overhaul of the whole system to make it more fair and accommodating for all.

@AdventureElephants I recently had to go to my local ER for a badly sprained ankle that I felt needed an xray. I was not offered a hot meal. I have never been given a hot meal in an ER room in my life. Maybe if one is some poor homeless person off the streets, but the average person in the ER is not receiving hot meals. You are free to get whatever you want off of your chest, but you need to be careful.

As a person who paid into the system my entire life I do not feel one bit bad about taking back some of what I have paid for as degrading as it feels.
You lost 48% of your assets but you still have a good job. I lost 100% of everything, work, home, life savings trying to hang on. I agree that young people should not be having multiple babies on the systems dime or going to the ER to get drugs but people like myself and @Seek should not be grandfathered into such stereotyped insults as vacationing public aide recipients with smart phones, gel nails and Air Jordans.

I resent, as a quality person who has fallen on tremendously hard times being stereotyped as someone who is abusing the system. That said, your damn right though, I will keep my reporting income below the IRT threshold for earnings so as not to lose my medical coverage until I can collect my social security and medicare. Once you have hit this sort of rock bottom you have no choice but to play the game to a degree. Even if I could find a decent paying position at this time I can’t afford the medical and I offer no apologies for planning on keeping this coverage until I can make other arrangements.

I also do not qualify for any cash aide, just the medical and a pittance in food assistance here in CA. I don’t live in some large metropolis or inner city environment jam packed with the stereotyped welfare recipients you speak of.

I have only been to an ER a couple of times in my entire life and have never heard of anyone getting a meal, usually involves quite a wait for a Doctor to look at you.
Never been offered a meal or even a beverage of any kind you sure you were at a Hospital and not the Hilton both buildings have a big H on them I could see you getting it mixed up.

So allow me to repeat myself again: I did not lump you or @Seek into any stereotype. I’m not understanding why I need to keep saying that.

Allow me to offer you a few examples of abusing the system that are frequent:

- A person with a half a million dollar company incorporates the company. He/She chooses not to pay himself a salary, and reports his non-existent income to the government for aide. He is on Medicare despite having ample assets. He never files a worker’s comp claim because government will pay all medical costs for him and he has $ to pay employee bills outright as reasonable.

- A person on Medicare visits the ER 45 times this year for back pain. The doctors run every test available to them in those visits and cannot find a reason. However, non-profit hospitals are incentivized for reducing patient pain so they administer meds (even Advil counts) to the patient on each visit. The patient files for permanent disability because they have legitameny been medicated for “back pain” that may or may not be real. The doctor notes can even specify that no medical issue exists, but due to the 45 medicated visits the patient gets permanent disability. They never work again. They continue to visit the ER for meds and validation.

I can continue. There are so many ways clients play the system, and very little one can do because of the loopholes.

And @Coloma, of course they aren’t just offering up hot meals to everybody. But if you ask for food they feed you, assuming you aren’t NPO status (no food).

I think I’m wasting my breath with trying to explain things to people that don’t have access to the financial and statistical data I do. I feel you may have blinders on because you are receiving ACA benefits. That shouldn’t mean you can’t try to see both sides. I do. I support those who need assistance, I really do, but that isn’t the point I’m making right now.

The OP asked about companies being worried poor people won’t use their services. This doesn’t apply in the medical business… Or does it?

@AdventureElephants If I’m following you at all, I believe you’re confusing Medicare and Medicaid.

@AdventureElephants I can understand your position affords you a glimpse into areas I would not be familiar with, but, I do not want to be grouped into a facet of the population that does not pertain to me. This fall from grace has been the hardest thing I have ever dealt with and the unsolicited “advice” and lamentations of others often just adds insult to injury. I am the person most deserving of taking benefits that I paid for as a taxpayer for 40 years but that doesn’t negate the degrading feelings I experience after priding myself on my independence and self sufficiency for years. I do not hold grudges and am more than willing to move beyond this little interaction here, but….you must realize that while you may be dealing with and seeing a majority of infractions against the system you must allow for those of us that have come to this pathetic station through no fault of our own from the trickle down effects of this depression.

For every degenerate, drug abusing, vacationing, salon pampered, smart phone carrying, ER dining abuser of the system there are 10 others that are not. This recession has PhD’s on food stamps and degreed people who have worked for 40 years that can’t land a crappy minimum wage job at Walmart. I am one of them.

Haha, @Love_my_doggie, that’s what I get for typing while entertaining friends. Thank you. Feel free to edit all of my other comments. Maybe I said it wrong.

@AdventureElephants Nope, not editing at all; just trying to understand!

Have a lovely evening.

All too often it’s the fox watching the hen house. The people making the decisions are also getting the big salaries. Once they get their money, what do they care what happens in the future. They don’t usually need to work until the day they die, their years for earning a salary are a much shorter horizon than the average person.

Most stock holders and board members talk about current profit and the year ahead. Not 20 years from now.

Then there is the problem that if they are part of the political religious right they might be influence by the song that group sings about capitalism being what God wants for the US, and the more greed the better. I don’t know about executive level, but at the lower levels I certainly hear people say the rich can buy more. They reason the rich spend their money and it’s good for the economy. It’s shocking.

@SQUEEKY2 As the wealth gap widens between the rich and the poor. Why do companies and corporations seem not concerned that before long there will be very few people left that can actually afford their goods and services?

There is no connection between the amount of possessions owned by one group causing a decrease in purchasing power of another. Just because there is a gap does not mean that there is a growing trend of poverty and thus a decrease trend of purchasing power. In fact, in the last 50 years, poverty rates have declined substantially and are steadily fluctuating between 10%-15%.

Furthermore, the sales data for home sales, durable goods, retail sales, food service sales, and vehicle sales, are surging or uptrending, either off the lows, or off its stable positions. The data does not trigger a concern that few people are or will be unable to support goods and services.

Here is a simple chart that shows that what you are saying is incorrect. Mean GDP has been rising, reflecting an increase in corporate income. Median GDP has been declining, meaning that the average person’s net income has been going down, and of course that means that average person’s proportion of the total has been declining as well.

Your chart isn’t invalidating anything I mentioned. Declining income isn’t stopping the trending surge in all forms of sales which is what squeeky is concerned about. Your own chart is proving this point. Corporations are profiting because the consumer, regardless of income decline, is still going out buying goods and services. Also, decline in income does not equate to an income below poverty lines which is why poverty rates remained the same for the last 50 years (10%-15%).

Besides, this potential problem that you’re concerned about is not the sole responsibility of corporations. Today’s market demands brains over brawn. Today’s market demands technological skills, engineering, medicine, mathematics, and science. If someone still desires to major in women’s studies instead of stem studies knowing that the market does not value women studies, then there isn’t anything a corporation can do about it.

If someone remains a low skilled worker that can be replaced by a desperate immigrant for half the pay, or by some worker in India for less than half the wage, or by automation, there isn’t anything the corporation can do about it.

Unless, of course, you’re suggesting worthless employees should be given jobs they’re not needed for and paid more than they’re worth?

Poor monetary policy that negatively impacts the consumers/employees isn’t anything the corporation can do about either.

Even if these worthless employees were taken out of the market, no longer purchasing goods and services, that doesn’t stop corporations from profiting. They will just cater to the stem majors who are making a good living and still participating in the market. Some corporations do just that. They cater only to the rich class, offering luxury goods and services or to the foreign markets.

@Jackiavelli What exactly is your definition of a “worthless” employee?
Someone needs to serve you your burger & fries, detail your car, bag your groceries, wait your table, bus your table, wash your dishes, stock the shelves, clean your office building. I don’t know of any automans doing these jobs yet and those that work in these less prestigious positions should not be labeled a “worthless” employee.
Given the abysmal state of this economy lots of degreed people have been forced to take these “worthless” jobs, and some can’t even get hired to flip burgers.

What’s “worthless” these days for many is often a college degree. Pffft!

Worthless in this context is pretty much anything that can be automated or will soon be automated within the next couple of decades. Using some of your examples, they already have entire restaurants that are automated. Cooks the food, serves it to you at your table, etc. If you ever seen some of amazon’s factories, it is almost entirely operated by robots. Stocking, packaging, shipping, etc.. Cleaning is automated.

Other business owners are scraping the restaurant endeavor and instead they’re opening up heated vending machines where you can purchase the same hot, ready to eat food that you would get a fast-food joint minus the overhead costs they would incur in an front establishment.

Another way to look at worthless within this context is that anyone with minimal brain activity can do this job, so they’re easily expendable, have no bargaining chips, and therefore, can’t complain when some immigrant, or foreigner replaces them because they can do the same job for less than half wage they expected to make. In this case, there is worth, but it is miniscule.

If you look at the data, those who majored in stem (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) are the least unemployed, least likely to be unemployed, and receive the highest salaries. The people who are resorting to driving cabs and flipping-burgers are the women studies major types.

Also, now that more people are being encouraged to go to college and federal aid is providing payments, it cheapens the degree because everyone has one. That is why getting a masters or a Ph.D is the new standard and obviously it depends in what college have you received your degree. If you got your degree at some no-name community college, it won’t matter what you majored in – it will be tougher to get employed, but easier if it is a stem major.

@Jackiavelli Well..the automated restaurant thing is the exception still, not the norm, and historically teenage kids or college kids have worked these jobs along with some seniors supplementing their income. I don’t think it is right to label those that work in some of these industries as having minimal brain power, lots of people with plenty of brain power have been forced to take substandard work during this ongoing depression. I have turned to pet and house sitting for extra income on the side and I am a very bright middle aged women who was tanked in this economy the last handful of years. From interior designer to pet sitter, but I certainly don’t want to be labelled of inferior brain power.

One does what they have to do to survive these days. Gone are the days when I pulled in a nice hourly rate and a fat percentage of a home sale that sold due to my stellar staging talents. From decorating high end real estate here in CA. to scooping dog poo, feeding horses, and house sitting for $50.00 a day.

^^I used to love the Automat in NYC. Their mac and cheese was such a treat when I was a little girl.

It isn’t the norm yet, but it will be soon, especially now as government policy forces businesses to pay employees more than they’re actually worth. I think by 2020, fast-food joints have to pay their employees $15 an hour. This just accelerates the demand for automation because they’re paying them more than they’re contributing to the business. They already have automation that responds to human interactions and they slap on realistic skin on the robot to enhance the human experience.

I didn’t write that people who work these jobs have minimal brain power, I wrote that these jobs don’t require anything more than minimal brain power. That is precisely why the job has little worth and doesn’t require much pay. It is why when you fire someone in this field, you can find a replacement in mere hours. It is why someone is willing to do this job for less than half the market going wage. It is why there are no bargaining chips and they’re easily expandable. The fact that you can automate the business, completely reduces the job to worthlessness.

As you mentioned, all these jobs use to be done by teenagers as part time work and now that adults are resorting to teenage work, the teenage unemployment has skyrocketed. Since these adults are doing teenage work, they want living salaries on a job that wasn’t designed to pay a living wage.

@Jackiavelli I agree about the wages not being designed to be living wages, however, this recession/depression has forced many to take jobs far beneath their education and capabilities. Pretty hard for a lot of adults being forced to take substandard work at a fraction of their earning histories. The whole situation is pathetic. No surprise the suicide rates have jumped almost 30% since the recession started.

Sure, these types of work require minimum brain power but it takes minimal brain power to throw a football or basketball or swing a golf club and look what these minimally endowed sports figures get paid. haha

it takes minimal brain power to throw a football or basketball or swing a golf club and look what these minimally endowed sports figures get paid.

Indeed, but not everyone can throw a football like Tom Brady or throw a basketball like Michael Jordan or swing a golf club like Tiger Woods, where as everyone can mop a floor.

So people that have an occupation that doesn’t require a post secondary academic education are worthless employees?
Tell that to a plumber, machinist , welder, gas fitter, and so on.
or even a truck driver like to see some office worker take an 83 foot 2 trailer rig through a mountain pass during a snow storm, but I guess anyone that doesn’t have a degree from Yale, or Harvard are just worthless employees.

Good relevant copy-paste:

Henry Ford, whose electrical engineers couldn’t solve some problems they were having with a gigantic generator, called Steinmetz in to the plant. Upon arriving, Steinmetz rejected all assistance and asked only for a notebook, pencil and cot. According to Scott, Steinmetz listened to the generator and scribbled computations on the notepad for two straight days and nights. On the second night, he asked for a ladder, climbed up the generator and made a chalk mark on its side. Then he told Ford’s skeptical engineers to remove a plate at the mark and replace sixteen windings from the field coil. They did, and the generator performed to perfection.

Henry Ford was thrilled until he got an invoice from General Electric in the amount of $10,000. Ford acknowledged Steinmetz’s success but balked at the figure. He asked for an itemized bill.

Steinmetz, Scott wrote, responded personally to Ford’s request with the following:

Making chalk mark on generator $1.

Knowing where to make mark $9,999.

Ford paid the bill.

@SQUEEKY2 So people that have an occupation that doesn’t require a post secondary academic education are worthless employees? Tell that to a and so on

I do. Some of these jobs are already entirely worthless. For example, Self-driving trucks or Automated Machinists or automated welding etc.

That self driving truck is in it’s very early stages and is abnormally expensive compared to a regular transport truck, and the self driving truck still requires a person/driver behind the wheel while it is underway, plus has problems as it won’t pass slower vehicles and can’t navigate snow covered highways.
And the other automated jobs still require qualified people to monitor them.
What I find worthless is the gaggle of brass at the top of companies and corporations,that do nothing more than trying to figure out on how to get rid of or cut down on the low end scale employees of said corporations.

Well, I didn’t mention it is a norm or perfected. I’m only showing you where we’re heading. They expect to take the man out of the equation in the next couple of decades. I guess you can officially call it a worthless job by then.

And the other automated jobs still require qualified people to monitor them

Yes, but that is in the field of robotics already, not welding and you only need a handful of people to overwatch an entire line of robots. You don’t need nearly as much of the man power as you do currently.

that do nothing more than trying to figure out on how to get rid of or cut down

With that kind of thinking, we would never have the industrial revolution. We would still be doing everything primitively and inefficiently. Besides, corporations aren’t thinking this up. They’re being approached by the tech industry in hopes of selling the automation to them. Obviously, it is an offer no sane employer would refuse.

HUH?I do. Some of these jobs are already entirely worthless. For example, Self-driving trucks or Automated Machinists or automated welding etc.
^^ Your words not mine^^ the statement some of these jobs ARE already worthless would make one think you are stating of today, not some time in the future.
Plus I really doubt you could really ever remove the driver even if it does become reliable ,you will still need a worthless employees in case some of these wonder machines break down, especially the transport truck imagine it breaking down out in the middle of no where, with a very expensive payload on board.

I think a better and less offensive term might be ” outdated” jobs not “worthless.” Semantics are everything sometimes. Personally, as a bright and curious and science minded type I am all for innovative solutions to problems but…the day they put a robot teacher in the classroom or send some robotic nanny to watch the children, well….no thanks, machines are just as prone to error as are humans.

Very true @Coloma but machines can be owned , don’t demand breaks, over time and health benefits, and when running good make nothing but money for their owners.
What gets me with all this and technology determined to do away with lower class jobs,why are humans still determined to breed their brains out?

A little late to the game on this… But it does not take minimal brain power to be a professional athlete, @Coloma. Strategy is instrumental, as well as thinking quickly on your feet. That’s a large part of why not everyone succeeds. Physical skill is only a slice of the pie. It may not be your traditional book smarts, but if you talk shop with a pro, I guarantee they will talk circles around you.

@AdventureElephants Coaches plan the game strategy for the most part, sure it takes some quick thinking at times, but not any more than your average horse that can dodge or jump over an obstacle in their path. haha
Sports figures are obscenely over paid for what they do.

@Coloma Obviously you aren’t an athlete if you think the coach does all of the thinking. And as far as pay… It’s based on a percentage of profits the player brings in each season. A percentage. Let me reiterate that: a percentage. So if the amount earned by the sales of merchandise/tickets/etc is obscene, then the amount earned by the athlete is compensatory. I think it’s more than fair.

@AdventureElephants Regardless of revenues, multi-million dollar contracts for sports players is obscene IMO when teachers, nurses and other hard working and educated people are being paid peanuts for their major contributions to the betterment of the world.

The two are not correlated. Would you spend your entire life in pain for less than 1% of the profits made by your company? Probably not. Who should retain the profits if not the athletes… The team owner? It doesn’t even make sense to have millions in profit and not to pay the players. How can you say “regardless of revenue?” Revenue has everything to do with it.

Where do you propose the money to pay higher salaries to the careers you mentioned comes from? I don’t disagree that educators should get paid more. The nurses I know make $40—$60 an hour, which seems pretty good to me. But those careers aren’t profit centered careers. Money doesn’t grow on trees.

@AdventureElephants Athletes choose to risk pain, injury and disability, their choice.
My point is that paying people millions and millions of dollars to throw a ball around for entertainments sake is an obscene waste of money, that’s my opinion, you’re welcome to disagree. I feel the same about the entertainment industry. Gross over payment for entertainment.

But you didn’t answer my question: who do you propose should keep the profits then?

@AdventureElephants I propose a much more modest “profit” from all facets of the sports industry, period. Obviously the players deserve to share in the profits of endorsements but they do not merit the obscene salaries they are paid in general.

You’re suggesting a business should try to make less money? I’ve never heard of a successful business model like that. Sports and entertainment are more like commission pay, not salary pay. I’m sorry you don’t think it’s fair that the consumers pour their money into sports and entertainment, but that doesn’t make the compensation unfair. Huge, yes, but not the least bit unfair.

@AdventureElephants I never said it was unfair, I said it was obscene. haha
A team recruiting a new player and giving them a gazillion dollar contract for nothing more than playing a handful of ball games over a couple year period and endorsing sports products is obscene compared to a neurosurgeon with decades of higher education.

What I heard from someone once, in reference to athlete’s making huge sums, is that if the team makes a huge sum (based on the success of the athlete, partly), and the promotional products make huge sums for their crappy merchandise (based on the success of the athlete), and the other products and services make huge sums (for example the vendors in the stadieums, the parking garages and area businesses and others in the area) (based on the success of the athlete), then why shouldn’t the athlete make a huge sum, too?

The last time I went to Yankee Stadium, about 10 years ago (I haven’t gone because I can’t justify spending $150 to see a baseball game), a baseball hat at the stadium was $40. Why shouldn’t the Derek Jeters (who was playing at the time) and others make some big salary when the stadium is making profit like that?

@jca Well sure, but that’s my point, it is ALL obscene when it comes to the game pun intended of sports. Whether that is the outrageous contracts the players get or the exhorbitant amount of money wanted for tickets, products etc. Just like movie theater concessions.