The typical median income in the United States is a little
over $46,000. If you’re fortunate enough
to have two full time incomes it rises to just about $67,000 and some
change. This is the yearly wage you must
live on prior to taxes. It is all you
have to raise your children. After taxes
it really leaves just about enough to keep the lights on, feed the family, and
take to occasional trip. Not really what
I would call living in the lap of luxury.
The typical median income for a professional athlete is $1,598,817.25. Take a moment to look at that number. I used the average yearly salaries of the top
8 sports and created that median number.
It would have been higher but women’s tennis and women’s golf are really
not super lucrative. This means that the
average for athletes yields over a million and a half every year.
I understand the purpose of the strike. It was first utilized in the work place to
correct horrible working conditions.
Meaning simply it gave people the right to stand up and defend
themselves. That is alright in my
book. I’m sure if CNN had footage of the
pyramids being built it would show the occasional Norma Rae standing up for
slave rights. Of course those
negotiations were probably quick and painful.
The strike is easy to support when the fat cat boss is exploiting his
work force to line his pockets. I can
stand behind those acts of justice. But
a professional athlete refusing to perform for the fans because they want more
money is a little hard to understand.
People pay over 2% of their annual income to support you, the athlete,
playing a sport. Two percent of your
annual income would pay what they do for a living. Here’s a thought lets go back to roman times
when you would compete to just stay alive.
Then maybe money would lose some of its zest.
