Recently, I stumbled upon an interesting fact about baseball great Babe Ruth and other athlete salaries. It’s been reported that Ruth earned a higher salary during the Great Depression of the 1930’s then President Hoover – publicly defending his $75,000 earnings by saying, “Why not? I had a better year than President Hoover did.”
While professional baseball players are skilled at the game they’re playing, I’m not sure their salaries should be more than someone guiding our country through one of the most difficult times in history.
Think about this – our current president earns some $400,000 a year – seems like a lot of money, right? Hold on to your hats folks.
In 2010, Derek Jeter of the Yankees earned almost $23 million, the average player’s salary among the New York Giants was $2.5 million and last year soccer star David Beckham earned approximately $6.5 million. Is anyone else bothered by athlete salaries, because I sure am.
For one person to earn $23 million hitting around a ball for less than a year, doesn’t make much sense to me. He’s not curing some of our most devastating diseases such as cancer, AIDS or Alzheimer’s or changing the lives of every day citizens still struggling in a fragile economy. Let’s face it, sporting events are nothing more than entertainment. And while we’d like to believe our favorite players are in it for the love of the game, ultimately it’s a business in which many are profiting.
I recently read a disturbing statistic in Time Magazine, which said that 1 in 7 families in America require government assistance to put food on the table. We’re talking about millions of Americans nationwide, from all walks of life. How then can we justify, and more importantly, tolerate professional athletes being paid the kind of money they earn when so many people are just getting by?
An athlete’s pay scale for entertaining the masses, should better reflect societies – in which many of us have had to work harder and longer while being paid much less, as the economy continues to hit the middle class hard.
I’d like to see some of today’s athletes try and defend their over inflated salaries to the 1 in 7 American families who rely on others for survival. Maybe then they’d see what it’s truly like to live in reality.
very good post! thanks!