We value things according to the next available unit, or the margin, as economists like to call it. For example, take the famous diamond-water paradox. Even though we need water to stay alive, we pay much more for a marginal unit of a diamond than we do a glass of water, which costs us next to nothing. Another way to examine marginal analysis is to see how we spend our paychecks. When we are paid, we pay off the bills in the order of their importance.
Education also comes well up in the order of personal expenditures.
On the other hand, spending for sports equipment and activities is much lower on our list of priorities, generally speaking. National patterns of spending tend to bear out this last statement. Americans on average spent approximately 10.7 percent of their 1995 income on education. This was a small increase from 1980 when education spending was 10.1 percent. During that same period, salaries for athletes and coaches boomed.