Do We Pay Athletes Too Much?

Do lord athletes win paid too much? In my ain opinion No In this modern time this is an ethical issue that comes up more and more often. This has been brought up especially in times of sparing enceinteship and the recession whereby families argon really struggling to make ends meet with unemployment, delay of retirement and commonplace reductions in disposable income. During this paper it shall be discussed how the ethical issue of high lucres came ab verboten, why it is an issue, who is stirred and what actions can be taken. Why is there this ethical problem?To post it simply, it is a matter of personal opinion and knowledge on whether you believe overlord athletes in the fall in States should get paid the take of wages that they do. Below is a chart produced by Canbridge University which gives an introductory represenation of the salaries professional athletes earn annually. From June 2008 to June 2009, the highest paid professional athlete, Tiger Woods, made $110 mill ion according to Forbes. Also on their list, at number two, was Kobe Bryant fashioning $45 million, and Michael Jordan with the same inwardness (and Michael Jordan hasnt played in quite a while . harmonise to Forbes Magazine, the highest indemnifying regular job in the U. S. during 2009 was that of a operating surgeon. The second-rate annual turn over of a surgeon last category was $206,770 (also out of Forbes). While the average pay for classroom teachers in the United States is $38,000 per course. At that rate, a teacher would need a little more than 27 years to make $1 million slight than half what a basketball player makes, on average, in just mavin year. The average pay for fire-fighters in the United States is around $40,000. The starting requital for police sullenicers in the United States is around $29,000.Do athletes deserve more m whizzy than fire-fighters or teachers people who hold what many consider existence more valuable jobs? This is the basis of wher e this ethical problem comes about. Some people work their entire breeding trying to make a living to support the families they have and have a very hard time trying to live near the poverty line. Some of the jobs they have to take to support their families are hard, manual labor jobs that they have to work at for 12 hours at a time. For example, adults that work in fast food estaurants usually work long days so they can make bounteous m 1y to support a family, because minimum wage doesnt go far in immediatelys world. Single parents usually work compensate harder than families that have two incomes helping to support them. The average professional football player gets paid almost $2 million and theyre not even the highest paid professional sport. Basketball players make the most out of all pro sports with the average salary world $5 million and the only thing they have to do is practice and play in games (FreeMoneyFinance).However it is rarely considered how much assess and go od these athletes do in helping our economy. In the banking business it is cognize as the jock tax and when understood, people will not be so judg psychic. For national purposes, professional athletes are taxed in the same manner as other taxpayers gross income little deductions equals taxable income. federal tax is com puzzleed without regard to your state of residency (home state), or where the employer/team is located (team state). The current top federal tax rate is 35%, starting at taxable income of $319,101 (2004, single filing status) (ZZLR. om). at a time to tax that direct for an athlete that earns millions of dollars a year is creating some useful revenue for states and the government that no one can argue with. Another reason why athletes do not get overpaid is the wrong emplacement that some people posses. For example people posit, Oh, I would hit a baseball for millions of dollars a year. Well, Im sorry you cant. These athletes are unbelievably blessed with tal ent. All of these players have such huge and extraordinary ability that they make the game look effortless.In fact, good luck smasher a 96 MPH fastball moving down and in on your hands with a wood bat. If you were to put one of these players with a cluster of amateurs, they would stand out to such a degree, it would be astonishing. So, is nine months out of the year devoid of a vacation easy for you? Is travelling to different cities approximately every tercet days crosswise the nation un praying for you? Is being away from your family for most of the year trouble-free for you? Is hitting a 96 MPH fastball effortless for you? You are starting to deserve that pay check.People say it is just a game and athletes shouldnt be paid so much. It is not just a game. Billions and billions of dollars get dumped into professional sports. In fact, professional sports are the 11th most lucrative business in the entire world (UPENN. EDU). It is a form of entertainment and people are willing to pay the banging bucks to watch these athletes perform. If nobody came to watch, they wouldnt get paid what they do. The fans pay the wages after all. In stinting terms pauperism for high performing sports stars is high while there are a fewer numbers of them.This makes their wages high. Direct affect this issue applies to, of course, is professional athletes along with their respected affiliated clubs/teams who pay their salaries. In certain examples such as that of soccer team Manchester City, which runs with a loss, is kept afloat by a Middle Eastern royal family so in that case they pay players wages. Indirectly effected parties imply those who contribute to the funding of high wages. Examples of these include supporters going to games, television networks paid licence fees, the public paying for cable to watch the games.One of the options discussed would be to cut players salaries. Now this could have profound consequences for many directly and indirectly involved. Firstly, the quality of sportsman would diminish. This is a general mental happening that when you recoil a persons reward for something, more often than not, they will reduce their work ethic consequently. The knock on affect of this would be that people would then find sports less entertaining which is a social consequence as people need entertainment.After this it would probably be imitation that this industry that employs millions of people, the 11th largest industry in business, could start to struggle with the consequential fall in demand due to a fall in quality. People would indirectly be affected as the direct of taxation that these athletes would drop and consequently affect the economy negatively not to mention the reduced using up the economy would see as they would have less disposable income. This would affect other people with job s and welfare.For example, if a professional footballer does not buy a boat in Florida then the company who makes the boat would lose out. Wel fare wise, the federal governments would have less money to put towards benefits to help those less fortunate. Similar to this charities would find themselves losing out also as the athletes would probably donate less as they would have less wealth to offer. This would, again, influence people negatively. To partly reduce this ethical predicament however it can be seen that wage caps could be introduced.These have been introduced in major competitions including NFL, NHL, English rugger Union and NBA. However there are pros and cons to the idea. For example, theNBA salary capis the limit to the total amount of money thatNational Basketball Associationteams are allowed to pay their players. It is defined by the compacts collective bargaining commensurateness(CBA). The essential amount of thesalary capvaries on a year-to-year basis, and is calculated as a helping of the leagues revenue from the previous anneal for instance, in200708, the NBAs salary cap was approximately US$55. m illion per team, and for the200809season it was $58. 68million (NBA. com). Now, before it is discussed how the cap could be deemed pointless, it must be considered that if this system is done by rights then wages would not go above and beyond relative figures when considering a leagues income. If a league sees more demand (television rights, franchise, etc) and therefore gains more revenue then it should be passed onto the players, surely. The issue here is that the actual problem of high wages is not stopped only in certain situations capped.To put across this point, in all but one season the revenue of NBA has been reduced. The reaction to this is that wages have also, in respect, gone up in a positive correlation. In conclusion, it is well documented that NBA stars are one of the best paid sports people in the business, even with a salary cap. The cap itself only lettuce certain individuals received ludicrous deals relative to the rest of the industry and does not mean the aver age wage would not still be high. Again, there is the demand to watch these athletes and the result of this is the money that is made from that demand sustains high wages.It is basic economics. In terms of punishment for breaking of the salary caps, at the moment, only include fines. Examples of this include in 2012 where the Cowboys will be penalized $10 million, paying $5 million a year for two years. The Redskins penalty is much harsher at $36 million ($18 million a year for two years). While the Cowboys are unlikely to feel that much of a pinch, the penalty puts the Redskins in a world of hurt. That $18 million a year is significant money. The Redskins have a decent amount of young talent. Those not already signed to deals may be lost.Tight end Fred Davis, a burgeoning star, is on a one-year contract. And Kory Lichtensteiger, a left guard, may not be a Pro Bowler, but hes worth keeping around. He is also on a one-yeardeal (forbes. com). Personally, if I was a leader of an organi zation who had power over such an ethical issue such as a governing body or the government itself I do not believe I would enforce or change anything at present. In fact, the idea of a salary cap is off putting. I believe strongly that if an individual is worth a sum of money to a team that is natural in a market situation, i. . he can generate that revenue back for the team and the demand for him/her is there then why shouldnt they get paid that money. Regardless of whether they save lives or not the quality of their labor is just as important. Perhaps not on a life-saving level however in terms of entertaining millions of people after thousands of hours of practise I believe to pay high wages is natural in the business environment professional athletes find themselves. Citations Badenhausen, Kurt. Top coulomb paid athletes. N. p. Forbes, 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. http//www. forbes. om/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2012/06/18/mayweather-tops-list-of-the-worlds-100-highest-paid-athletes/. NBA. NBA salary cap. N. p. NBA. com, 2008. N. pag. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. http//www. nba. com/news/salarycap_070710. hypertext markup language. Salaries of Professional Athletes. FreeMoneyFinance. N. p. , 2006. Web. 10 Jan 2012. http//www. freemoneyfinance. com/2006/09/salaries_of_ave. html. Cambridge University. Pros paid too much? Cambridge Cambridge University, 2011. N. pag. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. http//www. cambridge. org/other_files/downloads/esl/strageticreading/6843_SRL1_U04_P09. 1_sport. pdf. UPENN. Wheres the business in sport? Philladelphia University of Pennsylvania, n. d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. . Zeisler, Zeisler, Rawson & Johnson LLP. Taxes Cost of being a professional athlete. N. p. ZZLRJ. com, 2011. N. pag. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. . Salary Cap Penalties. N. p. Forbes, 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. .