So I haven't written anything here in a while, I don't know why, plenty of good stuff has come up recently. Indeed, I actually have a couple things I want to put up on here like my protest experience and about vampires, but for now I'd like to rant a little.
So my English professor is rather odd, I don't know what it is about him, but he's just.. odd. I mean he's really smart, has a PhD blah blah blah been working for years yadda yadda yadda, but he's got that "old" mentality ya know? Everyone has a grandma or grandpa that says fucked up things perfectly naturally, like my grandma, she said "japs" and "chinos" and "negritos" with a straight face and by god she didn't care if it wasn't PC or not. Fact is I don't even think they know what PC is, they're old, we let them say things like that. Now the same goes with my English prof, kinda. He's not really that old, I don't know exactly how old actually--maybe, like, mid-sixties?--either way he just says things that are like.. What? It's not really as bad as my grandma was, but it kinda makes you scratch your head. For example he talks about race in an almost racist way, but not quite. As you all well know, race doesn't really bother me all that much, people can say what they want, it's all a load of crap anyway. Today though he said something that really did bother me.
We were discussing education and why we were in college and what not. I was only semi paying attention I mean I know what I'm going to school for and as entertaining as his stories are it's like meh. So there I was kinda listening, kinda doodling, when he says "I don't think doctors should get paid as much as they do." Uh, what? So he goes on to say that just because they went to school for longer than most people that doesn't mean they should be paid any more and he goes on to say "In fact I think doctors should be paid a lot less and someone working at, say, Albertsons should be paid more. Doctors don't really have to deal with people bitching [he did use bitching] about food or complaining about prices or even as many people as a clerk does." Before I go on let me point out that he doesn't think that a clerk should make more than a doctor, but he thinks that doctors shouldn't be paid nearly as much. He then goes on to say that it's both the doctors fault and the health care system here in America and he cites that "doctors here make more than any other country." Probably true, but still come on! I work retail, you all have seen my rants about how stupid and retarded people can be, but I seriously don't think I should make more just because of that. Especially if the difference means taking money from the people that keep me alive. Jesus H. Christ are you kidding me? I mean I don't understand at all how you can truly think that doctors should be paid less and then go on, with a straight face, that Albertsons employees go through more hardships and deserve to be paid more. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Another thing he said was that the only reason doctors do get paid as much as they do is because "they have to, how else would they pay back all their student loans." Excuse me no no no no. Doctors get paid so much because THEY HELP PEOPLE. Ughhhh
Shit if you think all us retail people need more money why don't you take money from the people that don't actually do anything for society. This, like most of my opinions, is arguable, but I think those people are athletes. Mainly "professional" athletes. What the fuck are these people doing to make millions and millions of dollars per game! If doctors made 2.2 million dollars per patient then okay, take some money from them, but until they do shut the fuck up. At least doctors actually help people, what does a football player do? Run around, grope at other men, toss a ball around, and then make an idiot of himself in the end zone? Cool. So glad you're getting paid the big bucks to not actually do anything. Eh, okay they provide entertainment, but I would by no means call that a service. To be fair I think this is true for actors, eh, they don't do much either, don't even come up with the stories or characters they act. Before people say that musicians are the same way, I'd like to point out that they actually come up with what they're doing, create it, and, this I'm not positive about, I don't think they make millions of dollars per song, they make a lot, but they put a lot of work into it too. Athletes can just shoot up some steroids and bam they're good, no matter what drugs you do, you either have a good voice or you don't. They probably get paid too much too at least in comparison to doctors, so my point still stands. Besides people, do you really want someone without any education prescribe you medication that could potentially kill you? Honestly? No I didn't think so. Just because you put up with idiots on a daily basis does not mean you should get paid way more because of it, it's not like hazard pay. So what if someone treats you like crap, get over it. Plus, doctors get treated like crap all the time, AND have to deal with druggies, hypochondriacs, and insurance companies.
If you want the average joe to get paid more, drop the pay for people that don't do shit. And I'm sorry, talent in a sport does isn't worth shit in the real world. Period.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
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5 comments:
You and your professor are arguing about the relative value of specialization. The major issue is not about the end value of the service, but the need to provide a living by some source of income.
However, the example of the actor and the professional athlete is unfair, for several reasons. Very few athletes, relative to the number of them, make incredible salaries. Indeed there are the talented few which make incredible amounts of money, but they do so on talent. Supply and demand, you want the best, you have to pay a premium. The same goes for doctors, and in a slightly different sense, service in stores.
Actors and Athletes alike are required to spend the majority of their time making their body perform in an exacting fashion. As for your flippant argument that steroids can make a professional athlete, that's obviously false. The professional drug testing standards are extreme, and only continue to grow in complexity.
But your English professor has his own failing in reasoning, or at least explanation. Not all doctors make incredible amounts of money, and relative to the specialization, the capital threshold(schooling), and the amount of work involved, I find it to in general be a fair amount of money. In that alone I agree with you. The danger is that medical expenses are not a choice, in general. You can decide to go without, but only at a great sacrifice. This makes the demand for medical care extremely high, required by nearly all people all the time. This allows doctors, and now more so, insurance companies, to charge higher rates for something that is required for life. In that respect I agree with your professor, doctors should not cost as much. This is a failing of resource allocation, but is systemic, and points back to the issue of actors and athletes.
Movies and spectator sports are a socially supported phenomenon, encouraged, and causing incredible profits. These profits are actually primarily brought about by sponsorships rather than proceeds from events. Much of the money made by an athlete is made, not by his team (though the best do make a lot here), but from contracts for being an icon. This is true throughout sports, and media and entertainment in general.
Do that incentive, the value of sports players will not decrease. They are icons, heroes within society.
Your argument that doctors are more valuable to society is tenuous for me to agree with, mostly because health is a secondary necessary resource. "And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for." said one fictionalized professor, but his words ring true. The doctor keeps people alive, a noble pursuit. However, the athlete (in general) seeks to transcend his limits, and so can inspire people to live better.
As such things play out in what we call the "real world" this may not be the case, but a dream is a dream, big or small.
I'd like to first point out that "But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for" is is in NO way what sports are. Not even a little bit. Sure there can be some beauty, I guess, but it's tentative at best. Secondly I didn't actually argue with my professor, I just let it go and decided to talk here. And thirdly, on your last point in your first paragraph: you do not need make a million dollars to make a living. You can live just fine on 50k so that's bs.
Very few athletes huh? Well lets do some arithmetic shall we: There are 32 teams in the NFL here in America. There are 53 active players on each team in the NFL. The average salary, that's AVERAGE, for each player on an NFL team is $770,000. So: 32 x 53 = 1696 active players which means 1696 x $770,000 = $1,305,920,000. That's a BILLION fucking dollars to people that just run around. Are you fucking kidding me? In fact I think its WORSE that so few people make that much of our money. I don't care if they're "the best" at running around with a ball. What does that do for society exactly? They can be "heroes"--which by the way is fucking stupid too--without getting paid that much.
Speaking of "heroes" do you really think that many people actually consider them "modern day heroes"? I don't. Sure kids might for a while until they realize that it's foolish. Then they actually consider fire fighters, astronauts, police officers, and people that actually do things the heroes. Also, Cory, you've never worked in a store so I don't really understand how you can say that "in a slightly different sense, service in stores". It's NOT HARD. Jesus christ. Sure there are people that know more about their work, been there longer, but really? Pay a premium for someone to scan a book? Ring up an apple? Really? No. Not at all.
Ha, you really don't think that all those "complex" drug testing standards don't have a loop hole? Don't be naive, corruption runs rampant in the sports world, from the top to the bottom. You don't watch the news much obviously, but every other day someone is caught oh wait.. they've been doing it for years and years. I wonder why they haven't gotten caught with all those complex standards? Right.
Overall, I'm not sure why you're defending this issue. Maybe it's cause you're an athlete, but in any case I respect your opinion. Even if I disagree. $1,305,920,000 is a big ass number my friend. That's ONLY football players, it's probably close to that for the NHL, NBA, and the MLB so probably closer to 4 BILLION dollars for THE PLAYERS. Not including the coaches who really don't do shit, the refs, the uniforms, trillions of dollars go into sports for these "modern day heroes" while doctors get paid around a SEVENTH of what these people do. That's right, the average for a doctor is around $149,000. Hmm real fair. We got some idiots running around making $770,000 and people saving lives making $149,000. If you think that's cool, that's your own business, but to me it's horribly wrong. Not to mention doctors get screwed over by all sorts of things like insurance agencies and other crap that football players don't. Sure there's tax, but unless the tax is like 80% it's not fair.
Period.
The point your professor was trying to make was that you don't need excessive amounts of wealth to live. According to your statement 50k is enough to live on. Doctors make more than that.
What does matter is that people in the service industry (cashiers, waiters, etc.) don't make that much, especially not within a reasonable amount of hours of work.
As for the issue of sports icons, I never said it was fair, only that the way you presented was beyond extreme. You have to remember, the majority of these people retire off this money after age 25 (sometimes up to 35 in extreme cases). Still unfair? Well, maybe a little, I'm not one to say, but it's a system we (in general)perpetuate in our culture.
What I meant by paying a premium for services is simple. If one were to go to a more expensive restaurant, they'd expect better quality of food (a service), and to be waited on ( a service). The same goes, in a slightly more obscure sense, with more expensive stores. The employees tend to be more knowledgeable, friendly, helpful and otherwise. They also tend to be paid more, make better tips, etc.
As for your wild statements about the sports environment, well, I'm forced to cast them aside as ignorance due to inexperience. Sports are a trillion dollar industry, certainly. They are still an industry, bought and paid for by the people who want them.
Remember, you are not many, you are you and your opinions. There are far more people than just you, and lots of them watch, enjoy, and idolize sports and sports stars.
As for my defense of the topic, it is because I personally know several professional athletes, and watch them scrape by with as little money as possible as they try to live out their dream.
Sports are as close to a romantic dream as we will find in the modern jungle of society, and it is the only dream many people ever know.
I'll keep in mind that you are merely ranting and aren't interested in arguments or conversations about the topics you bring up.
Well if I weren't interested in discussing other people's views I would not have responded to you. Obviously I am inexperienced when it comes to sports; in the same respect, you are just as inexperienced, if not more, in social/professional situations. For example, your idea that by paying more you get better service is a fun little dream that I won't bother to burst, but I will say that if you expect great service in a place like Gucci or D&G, you're living a fantasy.
I'm also going to strongly disagree with you on the fact that sports are the only dream that many will know or pursue. From my experience, albeit limited, most "athletes" are nothing more than that, athletes. They don't do anything in school, they don't do anything socially, and they think they're vastly more important than they really are. I'm sorry, if you can run a mile in 4 minutes, props, but you do not deserve my respect for it. Nor shall anyone who can throw a football down a field receive it. The fact remains, and you did admit this by the way, that sports are indeed a trillion dollar industry. TRILLION dollars. Are you fucking kidding? We spend that much to defend our country. My point still stands that it's an over inflated piece of trash industry where ignorance is rewarded and wealth is expendable.
I mean not to offend you, since you're an athlete, but I'm sure you can still see the utter stupidity in it all. Especially coming from a sport that doesn't see any of that trillion dollars. This may be a rant, but it doesn't invalidate my points. Just cause I suck at arguing in a "politically correct" way doesn't mean I'm wrong. As for me being the only one that thinks this, I don't know what you're smoking. Not everyone idolizes sports people, in fact I know many people who think the whole idea is just as folly as I do. This is my opinion, but don't be foolish enough to think I'm the only one who thinks it.
Okay, so I agree that football is pretty stupid. But the argument that you make remains ad hominem because you do not take into consideration how much society values the sports.
As stupid as I think that football is, the reason why it exists commercially (and is successful to boot) lies in the fact that very many people obviously think that it's worth that much, and are willing to pay for it. Technically, then, football players deserve whatever amount of money they get.
It's like a CD released by what I may consider to be a crappy singer. It's there, I have the choice to buy or not to buy, but if enough people buy it and the singer becomes rich, who's to say that they don't deserve all the money that they get?
We don't have a choice how much money gets spent on weapons, but we do have a choice individually on how much we pay for sports. Obviously, this is comparing apples with oranges.
Finally, I find the "I know people who..." argument to be very weak. Yes, we all know people with a certain opinion, but this does not mean that they represent a majority. In this case, it's: How many people in the whole USA agree with my argument?
I think that the amount of money put into these sports industries makes the answer obvious.
As much as you try to be incendiary, you really shouldn't attack a person's intelligence. If someone has an idea that you consider to be unfounded, attack the idea; don't even imply stupidity upon the author's part. First of all, it's not nice, secondly, it detracts from the main topic, and finally, it weakens your own argument by making it seem purely argumentative. Insults facilitate arguments, not discussions.
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