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Breads and Circuses

Posted by $ Abaco 10 months 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?


All Comments

  • Posted by $ 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    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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  • Posted by CrustyOldGeezer 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    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 tutor-turtle 10 months 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 mhubb 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    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 mikeofallon 10 months 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 $ gharkness 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Well, you got that right! What was it someone said.... No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

    Too true!
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  • Posted by Eyecu2 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    No. While I agree that he is not worth what he is being paid. Neither you nor I make those choices. Making that his money and it would be theft for his wealth to be redistributed in any manner other than his choosing.
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  • Posted by nonconformist 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That doesn't answer the question though. Why do these owners have a crapload of money relative to owners of other more productive enterprises?
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  • Posted by Eyecu2 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    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 nonconformist 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    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 CaptainKirk 10 months 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 nonconformist 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    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 salta 10 months 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 $ gharkness 10 months 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 shaifferg 10 months 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 saucerdesigner 10 months ago
    I haven't owned a TV since 2003 and haven't missed it.What I have missed is the "programming" that TV owners enjoy, er, submit themselves to.
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  • Posted by chad 10 months 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 $ Thoritsu 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    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 $ Thoritsu 10 months 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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