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Breads and Circuses

Posted by $ Abaco 3 months, 2 weeks ago to Culture
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So I’m sitting here having lunch on a business trip (in Indianapolis…nice little city) and I see on tv that an NBA player just signed an extension for $270M, 5 years.

How in the hell did we get to this point where guys who dribble a basketball get paid in portions of billion$? I don’t blame this kid. But how?


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    Posted by VetteGuy 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    I agree. Playing a game for a living is worth millions of dollars? I don't get it.

    But the same goes for those who pretend to be someone else in movies or on tv. Does this really contribute any productivity to our society?

    Meanwhile our schoolteachers and veterans are barely scraping by. The things our society values really leave me scratching my head.
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    • Posted by nonconformist 3 months, 2 weeks ago
      Free market at work. (unless of course they are getting paid at least partially from government handouts or there is something else nefarious going on)

      The reasoning goes something like this: these people help produce entertainment. Some of them attract more paying customers than others. Hence, there is supply, demand and quality. The business manager hiring them has to make a calculation regarding their salary. I guess they calculated that this particular player is worth that much to them.

      People pay for entertainment because it helps them relax and take their mind off things. This increases the productivity of their work time because they had leisure. If they didn't entertain themselves, they may have had depression which would cause them to have less productivity. So, society is winning by having entertainment around.

      Teachers don't have much of an impact. They teach a class of 20 or so people per hour. Compare that to the number of people that are affected by an NBA player or a movie actor. Obviously, the latter would have much greater impact and therefore value. Also, the supply of teachers is pretty much infinite but there are only so many popular NBA players and movie actors that people want to see play.

      There is no free market for veterans, so, you will need to get rid of the state before those people get paid fairly for their work.

      I agree, NBA players and actors should be dirt cheap due to the stupidity of what they do, but for some reason the masses are irrational and decided that they want to have those person in particular entertain them.
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      • Posted by Eyecu2 3 months, 2 weeks ago
        As a Veteran and a teacher, I think that you are absolutely correct, and this is why I refuse to watch or contribute to any professional sport in any way. And while I do consume TV/ Movies, I have a penchant for older stuff that basically doesn't contribute to this modern lunacy of Hollywood.

        I know that my monetary contributions to professional sports and Hollywood are insignificant, but it is what I can do on an individual basis.
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      • Posted by mccannon01 3 months, 2 weeks ago
        I think you pretty much got it, nonconformist. It's leverage of the free market. An extremely popular entertainer has a lot of leverage where fans are willing to cough up the bucks to see the performance and buy products attached to the performer in some way. The performer may be absolutely useless in all other endeavors or thoughts, but that's the way it goes nowadays.
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        • Posted by mhubb 3 months, 2 weeks ago
          the problem is that there are so many with such empty minds to waste their lives on such non-sense

          i do not understand how people sit and watch this crap
          cheering as it they somehow have "ownership" into what some team of over-paid traitors are doing

          i do not and never will understand
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          • Posted by nonconformist 3 months, 2 weeks ago
            I suspect it may have something to do with selection pressures (biological and ideological).

            When the state takes from the productive and gives to the unproductive (presumably ones wanting the non-constructive entertainment), also known as wealth redistribution, the state creates natural selection pressure against the productive and in favor of the unproductive. Without the state, the unproductive may have gone bankrupt and died off or changed their ways, but with the support of the state they are able to prosper and increase in number.

            Hence we can observe the apparent inexplicable waste of resources.
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          • Posted by CrustyOldGeezer 3 months, 2 weeks ago
            HAH!!!

            You said stuffed shirt politicians without saying useless blobs of sh!t a single time!

            The political class rewards their garbage behavior with ridiculous benefits, then tax any progress we may have made in the PRIVATE SECTOR to pay for their GREED AND POWER OVER WE, THE PEOPLE.!
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    • Posted by $ 3 months, 2 weeks ago
      Me too. And that’s “hundreds of millions”.

      I can’t wrap my head around it. Does our society think this kid’s contribution is worth 100+ times more than my contribution? WTF? We’re talking 4+ generations of wealth. For dribbling a damn ball?!
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    • Posted by $ Thoritsu 3 months, 2 weeks ago
      Depends on your state. I made more my first year as an engineer than my father did his last year as a Physics teacher (FL). That is not good. HOWEVER, here in the people's republic of MA, teachers make a KILLING, and they work 9 months a year. They are a strong union, and keep arguing we need to increase taxes or "the children will suffer".
      My wife is a Nursing professor. There is little less competent than the operation of a modern college or university. Being an business executive and seeing what they do, is like being a professional athlete and watching fat smokers in electric carts cruising around Walmart, and then getting in a car with a "Union Proud" bumper sticker.
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  • Posted by shaifferg 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    Look at the condition of most High school physics and chemistry labs vs the number of athletic fields and new equipment they have, it is unbelievable.
    66 years ago(1958) my HS labs had equipment from the 1920s amd1930s, but my football gear was brand new! School supporters seem more interested in producing a few atheletes rather than educating for life. It really has not changed much.
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  • Posted by chad 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    The circus is paid for by the taxpayer, allowing the business that owns the team to defray costs by forcing the proles to pay for the stadiums that cost hundreds of millions. If the team owners had to pay for these costs the salaries would drop precipitously. The stadiums are paid for with property bonds, your property is indebted whether you enjoy the games or not is irrelevant.
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  • Posted by $ gharkness 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    It's all about what people will pay for. There's HUGE money in advertising beer, food, etc., etc., and maybe not so much when it comes to more mundane items. Anybody that can lead the eyeballs to these company's ads.....is going to profit.
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    • Posted by nonconformist 3 months, 2 weeks ago
      True, but the problem here is that the masses are interested in NBA rather than attending an intellectual debate about a topic of significance. If the latter was the case, I am sure the advertisers would be there instead.
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  • Posted by pkundl 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    Which is also why the "average guy" can't take his kids to a ball game anymore. Seen the price of tickets? .. or the concessions? .. or a souvenir for the kids? Gotten WAY out of hand.
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  • Posted by salta 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    Inflating away the value of the currency (about 98% since the Fed was created) didn't help. Being a millionaire becomes no big deal [desperately trying to sound casual saying that]

    I would like to have seen the negotiations with his agent. They were probably talking in whole millions, like handling poker chips, not even treating them as divisible.
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  • Posted by $ Thoritsu 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    Capitalism, but the NBA, NFL, MLB and FIFA are all monopolies. The monopoly part, supported by government subsidy, is the problem. Who cares that a person gets paid a lot. This is not a zero-sum game (as we have to explain to pathetic, young people wondering why they can' live like their parents, 30 yrs further in their careers), and the light of another's candle diminishes one's one, none at all.

    Worse yet are college athletics, where a well-rounded person has no chance of participating, and are anything but amateur.
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  • Posted by $ rainman0720 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    Actually, I think there might be a simple answer to your question (and glad you didn't have anything disparaging to say about my city! lol).

    Owner's Ego. And it only had to happen one time.

    Owner #1 (who has a crapload of money) wants a player (sport doesn't matter) and Owner #2 (who also has a crapload of money) has an ego that can't handle being outdone, so #2 ups the bid. Now #1 has his jockeys in a bind, so he ups the bid. Back and forth it goes until eventually one of the two owners blinks, and viola, the floor has been set. All future negotiations will use this transaction as a starting point.
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  • Posted by freedomforall 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    It's the Circus part of Bread and Circuses.
    Media advertising promotes this rubbish instead of promoting productive activities.
    Pro basketball is even more boring than golf for spectators.
    JMHO
    On the flip-side, major events can bring people together but that isn't the goal.
    Perhaps if people were encouraged to find something they do well and enjoy that instead ...
    (Heading for my electronics bench to build an prototype integrated amp now.;^)
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  • Posted by $ 25n56il4 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    It does seem ridiculous but considering how much the team owners are making it is nice the players get reimbursed so generously. My cousin played football for a very long time. He is in the football hall of fame. He ended his career with the Dallas Cowboys. Then he went into real estate. nb
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  • Posted by mikeofallon 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    The entertainment biz pays well at the top. Semi-free market. How about singers who aren't even good but have a shtick copied from elsewhere?? TV "Personalities"? Bad CEOs who still get their Mega millions, etc.....
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    • Posted by mhubb 3 months, 2 weeks ago
      i'd bet there are lots of people that can sig / entertain as good as those making millions

      i've always wondered why some make it, some do not as i do not always see much of a difference

      same with actors.
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  • Posted by CaptainKirk 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    Abaco, first... We have the INFLATION problem. Making the numbers appear much bigger.

    Next, we have the Economic concept of RENT. he is getting paid to ATTACH HIS NAME to an organization (he is collecting RENT).

    Through hyper specialization of skills. Those will specific skills can ask for a huge premium.

    Unfortunately, this is evidenced by the price of tickets simply skyrocketing.

    The "fanatics" (fans) are funding it. The companies are "financing" it, so they can compete. This is an inversion of interest rates going down, helping mortgages and home sellers.
    In this case, they struck a 5yr deal. It makes it sound bigger. And that raises the bar for the next big name.

    funny how "regenerative farmers" aren't offered that kind of gig... (because we have not found a way to wrap a multi billion dollar entertainment industry around it)
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  • Posted by AmericanWoman 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    Totally agree Abaco....think it all started with competition NFL teams who built mega stadiums that really were not needed the old way was great.... then let's boost the players salary...it's all a competition who can rip off the consumers who eagerly give up their earnings the most.
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  • Posted by tutor-turtle 3 months, 2 weeks ago
    I cut the cord eight years ago.
    Never missed it once.
    All I hear are complaints about the debauchery / Satanist programming and commercials.
    I ask; why are you still watching?
    My mom (R.I.P.) stopped watching "The Boob Tube" in 1980, she'd rather read a book, she saw it coming way back then.

    Kill Your TV

    It's for you're own good.
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    • Posted by $ 3 months, 2 weeks ago
      Yeah. I maybe spend an hour per year watching "sports". I do like to watch gold once in a while. Other than that, it's surfing youtube and rumble to watch people with brains...
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