I mean, granted, I get paid well considering where I live and the cost of living here, but I'd love to have the paycheck of a professional athlete because I do a way more dangerous stuff some days than any of those guys do.
I think that the most valuable contributions of "sports" overall are: 1) replacing (to some degree) local "warring" amongst tribes (now it's codified, and not about actual dying, etc.) 2) some of my students are just *physical* people - sitting still causes them actual pain. PE/sports are their only motivation - "do well in class and you can be on the team and RUN and THROW and MOVE" and that's what gets them working. For many of them, that "winning", in that kind of competition, is the only success they feel over the course of a year.
Obviously I think that the pay scale (and hype) is SERIOUSLY skewed, but it's something that I've come to understand more in the past few years than I ever thought I would.
You know, I do have to agree with this too. After working in two different residential treatment centers, I learned the hard way that sometimes the only thing that works is exercise.
And with many of the kids who were placed in these treatment centers, sometimes the only way you could reach them was through a little competition. If you're putting a little blood, sweat, and tears into something you care about, suddenly it becomes a little bit easier to understand the blood, sweat, and tears people have taken from you.
I'm not knocking their cultural values, I understand most of that. I think its more that I have a hard time relating to it personally, so I struggle to understand everyone else. The only way I can defend the pay rates for professional athletes and celebrities in general, is that they are industries unto themselves. They may get paid millions of dollars, but they also generate millions of dollars. I think our current cult of celebrity is an aberration. Traditionally, athletes and entertainers were paid very little, and often were at the bottom rung of society. You get to play a game/do something you love for a living instead of some lousy job? Thats great, but you won't get paid very much for it!
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1) replacing (to some degree) local "warring" amongst tribes (now it's codified, and not about actual dying, etc.)
2) some of my students are just *physical* people - sitting still causes them actual pain. PE/sports are their only motivation - "do well in class and you can be on the team and RUN and THROW and MOVE" and that's what gets them working. For many of them, that "winning", in that kind of competition, is the only success they feel over the course of a year.
Obviously I think that the pay scale (and hype) is SERIOUSLY skewed, but it's something that I've come to understand more in the past few years than I ever thought I would.
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And with many of the kids who were placed in these treatment centers, sometimes the only way you could reach them was through a little competition. If you're putting a little blood, sweat, and tears into something you care about, suddenly it becomes a little bit easier to understand the blood, sweat, and tears people have taken from you.
Reply
The only way I can defend the pay rates for professional athletes and celebrities in general, is that they are industries unto themselves. They may get paid millions of dollars, but they also generate millions of dollars.
I think our current cult of celebrity is an aberration. Traditionally, athletes and entertainers were paid very little, and often were at the bottom rung of society. You get to play a game/do something you love for a living instead of some lousy job? Thats great, but you won't get paid very much for it!
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