The Money Makers

There has been a concentrated focus on individuals in the top income brackets making too much money, not paying enough in taxes, or not giving back enough to society.   Out of all the top income earners, the focus has remained almost exclusively on CEO's, Wall Street executives, and others who employ thousands of people.  While the focus on them has been justified, there are many more who fall into the top income brackets that have simply been bypassed.  Perhaps it is because they did not directly contribute to our current economic crisis.  Maybe it is because they don't employ people, but rather are "employees" themselves who just happen to make ridiculous sums of money for what they do.  I am not talking about anyone in the business world here, but rather sports figures, entertainment icons, the ad industry, etcetera.  Granted, these individuals, especially sports figures and entertainment icons, give a lot more back to society than your average CEO does, but when you look at the amount of money they make for what they do, it seems relatively absurd.  The discrepancy between what they make to entertain us and what a police officer makes to protect the public is utterly ridiculous.  I would rather pay police officers more for them to maintain order in our society (provided they operate within the confines of the law) than pay extravagant sums of money to a football player who runs up and down a field for a few hours.  Lets look at the facts here, the top pay in baseball was $32 million for one year and the top pay for a football player was $27 million for one year. 

How can we honestly justify paying a salary of $32 or $27 million dollars a year for someone to play a sport?  To me it seems absurd.  The most they provide is entertainment.  Other than that, they provide no quantitative benefit to our society.  At least with CEO's (I am not defending them here), they run a business that has a direct impact on our society in one way or another.  Yes, sometimes they do horrible jobs and shouldn't be raking in the bonuses that they are, but to me, they provide more than any sports figure ever will.  Even if we look at the entertainment industry, i.e. music and movies (although I guess sports could be grouped into that classification), the amount of money they make far exceeds the work that they do.  That being said, however, the public has a great deal of say in how much a movie star or recording artist makes.  After all, we pay for the records and the movies that these individuals take part in and as such, contribute to their income.  As I said before, you hear of a lot more good being done by movie stars, recording artists, and sports figures than by your local CEO.  I do not have as much beef with the movie stars and recording artists than I do with sports figures.  All individuals in these groups have specific talents which have allowed them to reach the level that they have, yet to me it seems that we as the public contribute more to the salaries of movie stars and recording artists than we do to sports figures. 

So what tangible point am I getting at with all of this?  Simply put, that if people are going to attack a certain class of people, the top income earners in this country, they can't be selective about who they attack.  If they want to attack simply the CEO's and the czars of industry and capitalism, then they can't simply rally against the top 1, 5, or 10 percent of income earners.  Out of all the people complaining about our current economic situation, whether it be Wall St. Protesters, the "99%", or some other disenfranchised group, there are only a few who actually match their actions with their words.  There are many people out there, who through their daily purchases and transactions, inherently support the same people they are protesting against.  If a difference is to be made, the attack must be in the wallet of those in power.  How do we do that?  Boycott their products plain and simple.  When Bank of America introduced its new fees, there was such a public uproar that BoA decided to adjust the terms of the fees and how they would be implemented.  The public triumphed, temporarily at least, and forced the hand of massive bank.  Whats to say we can't do the same with these other industries.  I say take them down one at a time with specifically targeted boycotts aimed at exacting the kind of toll that will cause change to happen.  We can distinctly see that relationship in the recording industry.  If a person is a great singer, thousands will buy the album and put millions of dollars in that artists pocket, if not, that person will make a lot less.  It is the power of the consumer that can change the way things are, whether it be sports, entertainment, banks, corporations, etc.  If the people boycott, things will change, but it seems we have forgotten how to do that.