Sigur Ros will not sell out.

[OOO]

Bill Gates has made a shit ton of money selling pieces of plastic burned with a laser. More money than all the rest of the people mentioned in this thread, combined. Had there been a cap on money people could make, these $60 billion dollars would have been spread over a large amount of people, and probably used to buy HDTVs/iPods/lapdances. At any rate, Bill Gates is now using his incredible resources to rid the world of whole diseases and is making the world a better place. I hate almost everything about Microsoft, but because of the way capitalism works, Bill Gates has become the most monetarily generous person ever. And I think thats cool.

 

P.S. that picture I posted shows the lights on at night of North and South Korea. I don't remember which one has "communism"

[JUDE]

Gates would be alot cooler in my book if he'd buy me a couple a lap dances. Just sayin.

[Atticus]

did someone post how to pronounce sigur ros yet? If so, sorry I missed it

[Good Old Neon]

Here's the problem...you seem to forget or not want to admit that professional sports and/or the music/film industry is a business or, at least, have financial infrastructures around them. If by playing said game well, a particular organization reaps the financial rewards, shouldn't said athelete receive the appropriate compensation out of that overall $ amount brought in? You are comparing apples to oranges...$30M out of 100X that the organization will be bringing in via attendance, merchandise, tv rights, etc. in comparison to a job where there is no tangible profit center, isn't a legitimate comparison. It shouldn't matter anyway under your auspices that people shouldn't be measured by how much $ they make. Plus, there are salary caps in professional athletics...they may not be where you'd like to see them.

 

Again, you seem to keep placing all of the oweness on the atheletes and entertainers in these scenarios...people are buying the tickets. If everybody feels that ticket prices are so high, they should stop buying them...that can and has forced a change in pricing. I do personally think that ticket prices for both concerts and sporting events have become inflated...so I don't go to many (if any) of these events. I may want to, but I don't have to.

 

The whole problem I have w/ this concept of caps for everybody and redistribution of wealth, is that it assumes that everybody is doing the same amount of work, putting forth the same exact effort and what they provide to society is just as important as someone else. That isn't reality. Before you say it...yes, there are people who are legitimately challenged in getting to an appropriate financial bracket. Tha tsaid, I really do think that, while not the only reason, a large part of that problem is people just not willing to put forth the effort to try...because people like you saying that it's impossible, so why try. It's a vicious cycle...a mass redistribtuion of wealth and/or a communist society will continue to breed an individual that doesn't know how to or, more importantly, care about taking care of themselves.

 

By taking care of yourself, you can get to a place where you can help to take care of those who legitimately can't...I don't know why that concept is so hard to understand.

 

Is hitting and catching a ball, in a sane society, commensurate with earning 10 million dollars a year? Like I said, funnel some of that money back into the community

[Atticus]

Allow the state to own the team

 

I hate to sound like a broken record, but "really?"

[Good Old Neon]

did someone post how to pronounce sigur ros yet? If so, sorry I missed it

 

Sort of like "Sugar Rose" - with a little inflection on "Rose" to make it sound a bit more like "Rows" - er, I think.

[Good Old Neon]

I hate to sound like a broken record, but "really?"

 

Why not, lets mix it up, try some new shit.

[Atticus]

Why not, lets mix it up, try some communism

 

red does not flatter me at all

[OOO]

Here is an mp3 of it being pronounced correctly.

 

P.S. Salary generally gets determined by supply and demand, i.e. How many people people can do something. If a lot of people have the ability to do it, salary will be low. If few people can do it, Salary will be high.

 

Most people have the ability to dig ditches or work construction, even if they don't want to. Few people have the ability to hit like Alex Rodriguez. It's not based on importance, but rather on supply and demand.

[Good Old Neon]

red does not flatter me at all

 

Oh come on, are we still afraid of the big bad communists? What is commonly referred to as communism wasn

[Good Old Neon]

Here is an mp3 of it being pronounced correctly.

 

P.S. Salary generally gets determined by supply and demand, i.e. How many people people can do something. If a lot of people have the ability to do it, salary will be low. If few people can do it, Salary will be high.

 

Most people have the ability to dig ditches or work construction, even if they don't want to. Few people have the ability to hit like Alex Rodriguez. It's not based on importance, but rather on supply and demand.

 

 

No offense, and unfortunately, you are right, but when you really think about what you

[OOO]

Since the greek and roman times, governments/leaders have realized that keeping the masses entertained is a pretty important job. Whether its feeding people to lions, Riding horses into eachother while holding lances, or throwing balls into hoops...people need to be entertained or they get bored -> angry ->unruly.

 

So while I agree that it is a pretty useless skill in everyday life, its essential for keeping the lower classes complacent.

[Synthesizer Patel]

No offense, and unfortunately, you are right, but when you really think about what you

[ction]

No offense, and unfortunately, you are right, but when you really think about what you

[Atticus]

No offense, and unfortunately, you are right, but when you really think about what you

[caliber66]

On a more serious note, I'd say that few people can hit like Alex Rodriguez (I'm not American, so I'm guessing he's a baseball player?) because not everyone is given the chance to do so. If the money in the game was distributed better to allow all children the chance to play the sport if they wish, then it would probably not be such a rarity.

Alex Rodriguez was a poor kid who moved from New York City to the Dominican Republic to Miami by the time he was seven, when his father abandoned the rest of the family. If he had the chance to play baseball, anyone does. There are youth leagues throughout the US, with millions of participants - not to mention youth development centers all over the Caribbean. It's not a matter of opportunity.

[EL the Famous]

No offense, and unfortunately, you are right, but when you really think about what you

[ikol]

I don't understand why I should care what A-Rod makes. I don't see how it affects me.

[Good Old Neon]

if professional sports continue to bring in the revenue that they currently do, how can you say said skills are considered useless? obviously, a lot of folks think otherwise. and, again, YOUR projecting your priorities and views on what's useless onto everybody else.

 

backpack, baseball especially...you can play it any time, anywhere and unlike american football and basketball, more often than not you don't even need to go through the college system to go pro. if someone is really that good to play at a professional level...they'll play. it has nothing or at least very little to do w/ any sort of money being distributed. it's no different than anything else...being a 'professional' at something means you are really good at what you and better at it than someone who isn't.

 

Because I cannot think of a single situation in which I would ever, even if I lived to be a million years old, need to open the phone book, and proceed to look up a baseball player to perform a task, like say, a plumber.

[EL the Famous]

Because I cannot think of a single situation in which I would ever, even if I lived to be a million years old, need to open the phone book, and proceed to look up a baseball player to perform a task, like say, a plumber.

 

nor would thousands of people fill a stadium or millions tune in on TV to watch a guy install a toliet. see the difference?

[caliber66]

Because I cannot think of a single situation in which I would ever, even if I lived to be a million years old, need to open the phone book, and proceed to look up a musician to perform a task, like say, a plumber.

That, too.

[Good Old Neon]

nor would thousands of people fill a stadium or millions tune in on TV to watch a guy install a toliet. see the difference?

 

One performs an essential task, the other a completely frivolous one

[tongue-tied]

I don't understand why I should care what A-Rod makes. I don't see how it affects me.

 

See, if we take the revenue baseball brings from the people who organize it, run it, televise it, and play it, and give it to the government...then your town might get a few bucks to fix up the roads, assuming there's anyone left with the ability or motivation to pave roads well, or at all.

 

I'm much more confident in my pronounciation of "Sigur Ros" now.

[Synthesizer Patel]

Alex Rodriguez was a poor kid who moved from New York City to the Dominican Republic to Miami by the time he was seven, when his father abandoned the rest of the family. If he had the chance to play baseball, anyone does. There are youth leagues throughout the US, with millions of participants - not to mention youth development centers all over the Caribbean. It's not a matter of opportunity.

 

I guess I was viewing it from a British position, where public playing fields, cricket grounds etc... have been sold off for shopping centres and housing - giving the average child no chance of developing a liking for sport. If that's not the case in America, then I'm envious (well I'm not personally, but I am for the young of Britain).

[caliber66]

One performs an essential task, the other a completely frivolous one