Summary: Is It Fair For Professional Athletes
Is It Fair For Professional Athletes to
Receive Such High Salaries?
Professional athletes are persons who do sports for a living. These are people who earn on the average $48, 310 per year, though top athletes can earn millions even in just one game. The topmost earner is Tiger Woods who earns $80.3 million per year (Forbes 2004) and Michael Schumacher who earns $80 million (Forbes 2004). Because of the exuberant salaries that high-ranking professional athletes receive and the above-average salary that most professional athletes get, the salaries of such athletes have been put into public scrutiny. Do they receive such salaries when professionals such as teachers, lawyers, policemen, or doctors who do a lot of service to the community
would never earn the salary that high-ranking professional athletes get? In this paper, the salaries of professional athletes shall be defended. Athletes like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Michael Schumacher, and similar other top professional athletes are not only top in their field. The very reason why these athletes receive such whopping salaries is because they have what is called high market value. In the capitalist economic system that the world works on, one’s earnings is commensurate to the value that the market puts on it. Let us face it. A product endorsed by a Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods has ten-fold value than a product that is not endorsed by any of these athletes. Ferrari and Schumacher seem to be so inseparable such that it is difficult to determine who puts more value to whom. Athletic shoes and apparels, Xbox games, sports magazines, and cars are just some of the commercial products whose competitive edge rests on these athletes. In a world where the invisible hand of the market is the rule, putting a stop on this invisible hand by giving less value to personalities like these athletes is doing a great disservice to the capitalist market. To continue to preserve our quality of life, the invisible hand of the market ought to be allowed to continue, and as such, these professional athletes, given that the market values them, deserve the salaries they get.
Reference List:
2004. The best-paid athletes. Forbes.com [online]. September 23, 2007 http://www.forbes.com/2004/06/23/04athletesland.html.
Receive Such High Salaries?
Professional athletes are persons who do sports for a living. These are people who earn on the average $48, 310 per year, though top athletes can earn millions even in just one game. The topmost earner is Tiger Woods who earns $80.3 million per year (Forbes 2004) and Michael Schumacher who earns $80 million (Forbes 2004). Because of the exuberant salaries that high-ranking professional athletes receive and the above-average salary that most professional athletes get, the salaries of such athletes have been put into public scrutiny. Do they receive such salaries when professionals such as teachers, lawyers, policemen, or doctors who do a lot of service to the community
would never earn the salary that high-ranking professional athletes get? In this paper, the salaries of professional athletes shall be defended. Athletes like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Michael Schumacher, and similar other top professional athletes are not only top in their field. The very reason why these athletes receive such whopping salaries is because they have what is called high market value. In the capitalist economic system that the world works on, one’s earnings is commensurate to the value that the market puts on it. Let us face it. A product endorsed by a Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods has ten-fold value than a product that is not endorsed by any of these athletes. Ferrari and Schumacher seem to be so inseparable such that it is difficult to determine who puts more value to whom. Athletic shoes and apparels, Xbox games, sports magazines, and cars are just some of the commercial products whose competitive edge rests on these athletes. In a world where the invisible hand of the market is the rule, putting a stop on this invisible hand by giving less value to personalities like these athletes is doing a great disservice to the capitalist market. To continue to preserve our quality of life, the invisible hand of the market ought to be allowed to continue, and as such, these professional athletes, given that the market values them, deserve the salaries they get.
Reference List:
2004. The best-paid athletes. Forbes.com [online]. September 23, 2007 http://www.forbes.com/2004/06/23/04athletesland.html.