What I wish would be more prominently stated is how much these people invest in other companies and donate. Bill Gates is a great example of this with his near $50 billion in charitable donations. FIFTY. BILLION. DOLLARS.
Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool
Caution, long rant ahead. Proceed at your own risk.
That is a great point Zero. Its not like Wilson is going to get a check for 140 million and he can or will keep every penny of it. First of all there are taxes. Not every state has income tax but all have to pay federal income tax. Second, as you said there are many many millions of dollars donated to charities and the amounts given directly by the players is only the tip of the iceberg. The foundations they start bring in millions of dollars from outside sources as well. Third, again as you said there are investments. These players invest millions of dollars which in turn helps generate income for many other people. Fourth there is the spending. Players who make millions don't keep it, they spend it. It may be on stupid stuff but someone is making money off these players. Players with million dollar homes don't clean their own swimming pools or mow their own lawns. They support many others down the chain of consumerism.
I agree that 140 million is an absurd amount of money but when you consider that these players pretty much generate their own income by providing a service that we are willing to pay big money to watch and support it changes things a little. Every time a new contract is signed you have a group of people who throw their hands up and say "that's it I'm done supporting these millionaires and billionaires" but in the end they most likely don't stop or it doesn't matter because there are plenty more left to pick up the slack.
Four occupations that often get compared with athletes are soldiers, police officers, fire fighters and teachers and I agree that in most cases these people are woefully underpaid and they are far more important. Essentially we pay the salaries of all these people and athletes as well. The difference is that we pay the salaries of these people through our taxes which no one likes to pay and everyone wants to pay the least amount possible while we voluntarily fork over billions to watch people play games. I can guarantee that if every one of us decided that instead of paying 500 bucks to take our family to a ball game we would spend it watching some poor teacher trying to teach little Johnny to read their salaries would go up. If a crowd of rubberneckers was willing to pay 100 bucks to watch a building burn fire fighters would get more money. We get hours and hours of free news coverage of school shootings and war but if we put it on pay per view police officers and soldiers would make more money too. And if not, it just goes to show that while we complain about the disparity in incomes between athletes and civil servants most of us are not willing to do anything about it.
Why is the AAF declaring bankruptcy? In part it is because we don't want to watch mediocre players getting paid $250,000 we want to watch 140 million dollar players getting their blocks knocked off by 100 million dollar players while trying to throw the ball to 75 million dollar players.
I'm not trying to defend athletes salaries. As I said they are ridiculous. I'm just getting tired of people complaining about them. The billionaire owners pay their millionaire employees with money paid to them by billion dollar corporations who, essentially, get their money from us. As soon as we stop giving it to them the salaries will go down.
If you build it they will come but if you tear it down they will stop coming.
Sorry for the rant and the overly simplistic approach and I'm not trying to portray myself as anything different than anyone else. If I had the chance and the money I still wouldn't buy season tickets but I'd most likely be spending it on a lot more NFL merchandise. I probably wouldn't donate the money to my local school any more than anyone else might. I'd probably be just as guilty as everyone else in contributing to these ridiculous salaries while ignoring the plight of those who may be more deserving and far more essential but are far less entertaining.