My hubby and I have had this discussion on many occasions. It has to do with what we as a society value. In this case I am talking about the salaries of professional athletes, and professional actors. Please note that I do use the word professional, as I recognize that it does take a certain amount of commitment in order to achieve what they have achieved.
But with that being said, in many cases it has to do with being in the right place at the right time and the god given talent of being able to throw a ball over 100km/hr or run a football down a field, or putt a ball into a hole. Yes there is practice that comes into play, and dedication. But I ask you why do we as a society believe that these few individuals should be worth the salaries they are paid? Tiger Woods for example, a fabulous golfer but is he really worth a 40 million dollar endorsement? Baseball players some of the highest payed athletes, are they really worth the multi-million dollar salaries that they are being paid?Why do we place such value on an athlete and not on the nurse or doctor who is saving your life when you go into cardiac arrest? Why is that acceptable? Don't get me wrong I think most doctors are very well paid and rightly so....they have your life in their hands. What does the football player do for you? Is he going to save you when you have an anaphylactic reaction to a peanut? I think not. Or the nurse who changes your dressings or performs procedures in order to improve the quality of you life, isn't that worth something to you?
What about those actors, yes they study their character and do their homework...but rightly so, 
they are getting paid millions for doing that, they better make it realistic.
they are getting paid millions for doing that, they better make it realistic.What about that care aide who cares for your mom or dad in the nursing home, spends time with them, talks with them. Or the physiotherapist who works with you after surgery to help you get full mobilization back. Aren't they worth it? Isn't your health worth it? Don't you deserve that care? Of course you do. But we keep being told there is no money in the coffers for health care, and that we must pay huge health care premiums and that doesn't even guarantee that we are going to get the care we need. But hey don't worry there is money to pay the professional athletes their exuberant salaries so we can watch them play football or baseball as we bleed to death in the hospital corridor waiting for the HMO to give the go ahead for treatment.
Is it just me or doesn't this seem crazy to anyone else? Indirectly I do pay these athletes salaries, buy purchasing tickets to the games, paying to wear one of their jersey's or drink from a cup with their name on it, or my husband use a shaver that Tiger says will give him a closer shave.
I have never understood the concept of paying someone to play a sport. I am not saying they are not athletes and practices and work hard, they do...but no one in my mind is worth a 40 million dollar endorsement contract for shaving products, and I won't support it. It's just wrong to me.
What about our police force, and fire fighters what are they worth to you? Or the teachers who are teaching our future generation, they have to be worth something to you? I guess they don't mean a whole heck of a lot to us based on the salaries we are willing to pay them. Especially our police officers and fire fighters
who go out there every day and risk their lives for each and everyone of us. How can we as a society say that a running back is more valuable than some one who is willing to risk his or her own life to pull us from a fiery inferno?When I see people struggling to make ends meet, and can't afford health care and yet we as a society say it's ok to pay these athletes and actors these kinds of salaries. It's just to crazy for me, and I think we as a society have our priorities all mixed up.
19 comments:
I so agree with everything you said. There was a time when health and security workers were valued, now it seems you just have to be airbrushed to be paid a disgusting amount of money! BAH!
I so agree with everything you said. I have always believed that the service professions that both you and I are a part of are the most undervalued in society.
I don't watch or support those sports, I think they are just a bunch of over paid monkeys and after football games there are fights and women get beat, sometimes even killed.
And as you said, entertainers are over paid. I don't know about where you live but police and firemen get paid pretty well here, and have good benefits.
They have strong unions, but they keep crying how hard their jobs are and how much more they deserve.
I think the police do have crappy jobs, but firemen seldom work that hard, only during big fires. I remember the days when guys joined the fire department just for the heck of it, to be good old boys and fight fires because it was fun.
I'm not sure how the teachers in this area are doing, but better than a lot of the workers around here.
It's the school administrators that irritate me, they are over paid and stupid and have teachers teaching stupid things in stupid ways.
RN, as always, you have something deep and insightful to say. I've thought about this for some time, and I think their value may well be their superficiality. As a culture we tend to buy in to Madison Avenue images rather than what is real. We'd rather watch the latest Paris Hilton scandal than learn about the destruction of our environment. We run out to spend-spend-spend in a vain attempt to capture the image of rock star or Barbie doll for our selves. Of course all the people you mentioned have more real value, but as a culture we invest far more in the superficial. How else can you explain a culture in which a person's net worth is a measure of what they have, not who they are?
Another insightful post. As a society we certainly do have a skewed sense of what value should be placed on human beings.
Smalltown: You are exactly right. It makes absolutely no sense at all. The world is out of kilter sure nuf. Don't know if it ever can be straightened out! Maybe in baby steps. I'll be gone by that time!
Donnetta
I totally agree with you. It's a shame that someone gets paid a million dollars to throw a football, but yet so many people can not afford the basics of life.
Oh, what do I value? My free and clear property, my wonderful and wise old neighbor lady friend.
Like you, old buildings.
Speaking of earthquake proof, you know what is stupid? The hospital here is built on a bluff a 150 feet over the bay.
What a dandy place to have a hospital in case of a large quake here. I'm sure it will do a lot of good to have a hospital in the bay when it is most needed.
I hear a lot of complaints about it, but I don't have any problem with the little care I have gotten there. Some people just expect too much.
Especially the bottom feeders.
I don't purchase tickets to watch them play or buy a cup or any product that they have endorsed......simply because it is outrageously priced because it carries the name of someone supposedly famous.
I think the people that really need our appreciation, doctors,nurses, police officers, dentists, military personnell, etc. rarely get that appreciation and certainly not in monetary values.
I have to take offense at what 'bbc'says about firefighters not working very hard.....they must make sure all the firefighting equipment is in proper working order at all times, plus many of them are First Responders, which means they may be the very first ones at the scene of a terrible accident and because of them, some people will have a fighting chance of survival by the time they make it to the hospital where the good nurses and doctors can provide more technical care.
And I don't think that many of the professional atheletes or the actors or actresses show very much responsiblity for our young people to look up to and emanate. I certainly would rather my grand children grow up to be fire fighters, police officers, first responders, nurses and doctors.......even if they are under paid........they will be able to go through life with their heads held high!
Hugs my friend and sorry I got so carried away!
I am right there with you!
We don't pay those who serve our community a decent wage but we can pay a guy millions of dollars to hit a ball with a stick.
I wouldn't trade one day with Felicia and Micah for any one of the professional athletes salary for a year...
Girl I am right there with you about everything. And as the aunt of both a public school teacher and a nursing home worker, I know first hand how little we pay these workers who have to perform life-changing miracles.
BBC and I don't see eye to eye in pretty much ANYTHING and at the risk of starting a fire on your site, don't agree with his take on firefighters either. When our home was burned a few years ago I was grateful that the firefighters were physically capable of getting up to the roof quickly to water the flames.
This is a great post and I agree with you 110%.
You should have your own talk show on the radio, you are good!
~Michele~
Rocky Mountain Retreat
Athletes and entertainers (in part) make that much money because their talent is making somebody else rich - at least there are a lot of athletes/entertainers that give a lot back. I do agree though that the priorities are twisted.
It's greedy corporations that make me nuts - no matter how much profit they're turning they need more - not to mention the deceit. Look at how the producers are lying about Internet profits in order to screw the writers.
And finally - I'm with Martie about the firefighters - they do so much more than just fight a big fire, and I doubt they find fires to be fun.
While I'm at it - I certainly believe in free speech but I must say that I find the term "bottom feeders" to be offensive.
Thanks smalltown rn for another great post.
I missed BBC's comment on firefighters earlier. That's a 'bottom feeder' attitude he had there. I used to be a volunteer firefighter, and even as a volunteer, I worked plenty hard. Just the training exercises can be exhausting, running, climbing and sweating with 60+ lbs. of gear and protective clothing.
I've always maintained that cops, firefighters, teachers and nurses are horrifically underpaid for the importance of the service they provide. Your observations are very good, they only explanation being that athletes and actors do things that translate into profit margins we can't even wrap our brains around. Fair? No but as far as hard work, I can't imagine an actor or football player having the gall to say they work "harder" than a nurse or firefighter.
I ended up taking early retirement from teaching because of the stress of being pulled in so many directions - administration, parents, students, colleagues, home & family, etc. I finally decided I'd reather be on a fixed and low income rather than on a salary that was almost equivalent to a unionized grocery store employee. I'm so much happier now. And I wholeheartedly agree with your argument, one I've had for longer than you can imagine!
I'm not sure what a fair wage and sure there is people who have special talents and are ready to build them up to professional standards.
How about those people who gets up everyday and go to work. People who goes to work usual makes some other life a little better.
I do home care and if I didn't go to there home and some of them wouldn't be able to stay in there own home.
It's crazy and upside down. It seems like the people who do the least (Paris Hilton, Britney Spears) take so much of our consciousness. Whereas people who really do something to make the world a better place are rarely heard about. Amazing and stupid.
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