Athletes Essay -- Sports, High Salary

How much money does the average person really need to be able to eat three times a day, have a roof over their head, send their children to school and have a car? All this could be done on an income between $30,000 and $40,000 easily. But somehow it was decided that people who labour harder than most, city workers, janitors and factory workers, would be paid less than someone who sits behind a desk all day or someone who plays a game for a living. Today athletes are the highest paid people in the country, with the exception of Donald Trump and his toupee. It is ridiculous to believe that someone is really worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and all they have to do is play a sport that millions of people would play for free if given the chance. Therefore, I strongly believe that professional athletes are overpaid due to several reasons. Schingle stated that personal athletes get paid what the market will bear (2008). If attendance at sporting events were to decrease, or advertising dollars were to dry up, they would start getting paid less (Schingle 2008). Since professional sports are a form of entertainment, Schingle said that in America, people pay for their entertainers dearly (2008). Moreover, Schingle compared sports with other field which is Hollywood where he stated that actors are also overpaid in their industry (2008). Bate stressed that most people are jealous that they keep complaining about athlete’s pays (2008). Some people claimed that they pay the athlete’s wages through the ticket money but they did not realize that the endless demand for the tickets and the thirst for the game is what created the high wages (Bate 2008). An athlete has to sacrifice a lot to reach the top of his profession which is being a pr... ... in Africa who are dying from hunger (2008). On top of that, the money can be used for other beneficial things such as increase the salary of doctors, engineers, low paid factory workers working 12 hours a day and make this world a better place to live in (Wadhwa 2008). Lastly, Wadhwa stressed that athletes entertain us but they do not save lives or make this world a better place to live, like doctors and other workers who spend the whole life time just earning enough to survive (Wadhwa 2008). In conclusion, the reason that the athletes are overpaid because of the market demand is not acceptable because the individual’s greed, the owner’s greed and the fact that sports are only for entertainment make it clear that athletes are overpaid for no beneficial reasons. The government should control the flow of money and use it for the development of the country.