Athletes are making huge amount of money and their staggering income has been attracting the attention of people from the society. People have started talking that athletes are overpaid in contrast to other people of the society though they have almost no contributions towards the welfare of society. A teacher, lawyer, doctor, nurse, fire brigade employee and police man work for the society for the whole of month and get ordinary salary or income while athletes are being paid enormously for playing games. People are raising questions that who is more important for the society athletes, who entertain the rich ticket buyers or the others who are serving the society and if other people are contributing for the society more than the athletes do, then why athletes are being overpaid.
The other aspect of this account, According to the experts is that enormous money has negatively affected the children and inspired them to involve in sports. They have started paying much attention and time in the sports and less time in their studies. A trend of bunking classes for watching and playing the games have also been emerged among the children. Teachers often complain that some extra sports enthusiastic children start discussing about last match in the class and disturb other students also.
This habit and attitude of the children affects their performance in the study and in long term, they get affected negatively. Children without knowing and measuring the success ratio and their capacity involve themselves in sports and when they do not get success, they get frustrated. Children only see the enormous money, paid to these athletes and their glamour on the screen but they do not know the distress and failures of these athletes and just encumber their education and career seeing and following these highly paid athletes.
The minimum salary given by NHL to its player is $525,000 for the year 2011-2012. NBA pays its players$ 490,180 annually. MLB pays its players$ 414,000 in one year and NFL gives $375,000 annually to its players. Players earn a very handsome salary and further they earn by advertisements of various products and endorsements. Athletes make enormous money from the advertisements and this money is sometimes more than even twenty five times of the salary that they get. They earn enough to spend a cozy life while several others in the society are struggling for a simple life.
Doctors earn something between 100,000 to 250,000 in one year depending upon their expertise, area of practice and clientage. Doctors are considered high earning professionals but even then they are nowhere if we see the income of athletes including the salary and the income from advertisements.
Teachers are very important for the society and play a major role in the making of the society but their income in comparison of athletes is trifling. They earn something between 50,000 to 100,000 in a year which is nothing when compared to athlete’s income for one year. Such abrupt disparity between the salary of teachers and athletes may cause the frustration in teachers and discourage them in fulfilling their duty.
Lawyers also earn good money depending upon a number of factors including, the capacity of client, nature of case, the gravity and urgency of the matter etc. but their income also can not equal with the income of athletes.
The big issue is that even some doctors or lawyers are earning good money though not like athletes, but they are contributing a lot for the society and their earning is justified but earning of athletes, being merely entertainer is not justified. Apart from that, these people are highly qualified, they have spent years studying and serving the society however most of the athletes are commonly educated or mediocre. When these athletes earn enormous amount of money, they also spend it without thinking. There are several instances where athletes are found flaunting their money on drugs and girls. Athletes do nothing for the society except wasting of the time and some intellectuals opine that this trend needs to be changed. People say that if a man is dying or there is fire somewhere, then a doctor and a fireman will be helpful and not the athletes. The role of teachers or a police man is so important in the society that it is difficult to imagine a developed or regulated society without them, but when it comes to the salary, they get nothing in compare to the huge money that athletes get.
After the above observation, it is clear that in compare to the other people of the society, athletes are overpaid. The issue is being debated among the people of the society and the time has come to consider this issue very seriously and take some steps in this regard. and People who are working for the society are not well paid and athletes, who are just playing games, entertaining or in other terms, wasting the time of people and causing the children to deviate from their studies without knowing the consequences, are getting enormous amounts and are overpaid.
Works Cited
Resnick, Steven. "Multiple Sports." 28 March 2009. bleacherreport. 20 November 2011
Riper, Tom Van. "Forbes." 5 July 2008. forbes. 20 November 2011
