DISQUS

adelinesdad · 11 months ago

I assume that you really aren't advocating paying social workers and other who "help other Americans" (I assume you would include many other professions such as teaching, nursing, and many others) making millions of dollars since that would cause run-away inflation. I assume you're just trying to make a point. So to respond to your point:

The sports players and actors and such make up such small fraction of the population. If would be great if they would donate a large portion of their salaries to charity (as some do, and it should be noted that a significant portion of their income, although not the majority, goes to taxes), but even that would not significantly change the economic situation on the whole because really there aren't that many of them. So why do they matter? If they didn't exist, you'd be perfectly happy with our economic system? I assume not, so why waste 13 paragraphs talking about them? And what do you propose should be done with the proceeds that are made by having millions of people watch a movie, if not to pay the actors and producers? Ideally, they would go to help the poor. Are you in favor of mandated charity? I guess it would be a good idea for our competent elected officials to decide which industries are helpful and which ones to tax to death. Is that your solution, or do you propose another?

But I do think the growing wealth gap between the rich (not the celebrities you're talking about, but the run-of-the-mill rich) and the poor is a concern. Mainly I'm disagreeing with your tone in this piece. Let's talk about the real issue without bringing up celebrities which don't matter or unsustainable wage fairy tales.

Slamfu · 11 months ago

Don't be silly, practically anyone can work factories or teach, professional athletes are rare and gifted individuals. Simply because what they excel at happens to be a sport you played at an amateur level back in the day doesn't mean anything. If people doing average work start getting paid exceptional salaries as a general rule, the world literally stops working.