Athletes Are Way Overpaid

I would like to begin by pointing out that pro, you have not contributed anything new to the debate, simply re-iterating points in your first argument which I had already discussed earlier. Now, I want to draw attention to the fact that, as a society, we are abysmal when it comes to understanding how money works. Generally speaking, people tend to be very short term thinkers, which is why we tend to spend money in the moment with little regard for the financial consequences. We spend today rather than save for tomorrow and rarely consider how this will affect us in the future. In this regard, professional athletes are no different than the rest of us. This is one reason, amounts a variety of other reasons as to why most professional athletes end up broke just a few years after they end their careers. When you think about professional athletes, you are focusing too much about the things that spend their money on, things like fancy cars, expensive parties, flashy jewelry, and lavish houses. It"s true that athletes can afford just about anything they want during their earning years, and we all know about the extravagant lifestyles many of them choose to lead. But the fact is that for all their money, they are grossly under-exposed to wise financial counsel. We tend to judge athletes for their financial indiscretions and luxurious lifestyles, however I would like to take some time to urge you to consider: If you were given your lifetime salary within the span of just a few years, how disciplined would you be with that income? Would you go spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxurious cars and vacations, or would you recognize that your money had to last the rest of your life and invest it wisely? Now consider: How wisely are you handling the money you actually do make? Are you spending every dime you make eating out and buying new cars and toys, or are you planning for your future? When you come to the end of your working career, will you be financially solid or broke? The primary difference between average people and professional athletes is that many of the mistakes of athletes are put under the microscope of public scrutiny. This automatically creates the argument that professional athletes irresponsibly squander their vast fortunes. But if you were to examine the way that regular people handle their finances, you"d find that many of us are just as guilty of squandering our resources. There is also a point that can be made in respect to the way they are paid. Like I highlighted before, professional athletes earn a majority of their money from people who purchase merchandise and attend events and games. Generally speaking, the better you play, the more people want to watch you play, and sport companies recognize this, and therefore pay their popular players significant sums of money from earnings to ensure that they do not decide to change teams. All in all, how much athletes earn really comes down to how much WE are willing to pay them. The reason why the president or anyone in highly important jobs may not earn as much money in such a short span of time is because we choose to spend millions of dollars on sports, while we don't choose to actively pay to watch the president engage in debates. The entertainment industry is highly valued in this day and age, and when people are willing to spend such excessive amounts to support the lifestyles that athletes have, although perhaps they earn more money than they should, the money that they earn is not unjustified, and comes right out of your pocket every time you show up for a game.