I keep hearing that “Athletes are overpaid” argument all over the internet.
Yet these are the same people who gush over influencers being paid thousands, if not millions of dollars, for making cringeworthy videos on TikTok or playing video games and screaming like monkeys. PewDiePie, for example, has an estimated net worth of 45 million dollars. All for playing video games and uploading vlogs. I play video games, and I don’t want to be paid millions of dollars for that.
Athletes like Patrick Mahomes are paid millions according to their rare talent; very few people can throw a ball as well as he can. And I am not a sports fan (at least anymore). Anyone can play video games.
And don’t get me started on those cringe TikTok videos of people making weird faces or drinking coffee, and some of them are paid a lot for that. That is just depressing. There are millions of people doing backbreaking labor and are paid pennies.
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I don’t think people realize how much the NFL (for example) makes off these athletes. They rake in billions of dollars off stuff like merchandise and advertising. People pay big money to see the best athletes, like Mahomes. And it’s not just the NFL that’s making money off athletes like him either. Companies like State Farm and Coors Light must be getting a huge boost to the sales by featuring Mahomes on their products and commercials.
Really, it’s no different than how an actor/actress makes a living.
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Most are not. However, watch one LA Clipper game where Ben Simmons is on the court, and if you can somehow justify his $163,525,665 in career earnings, you sir are first in line for a Nobel Prize in Economics.
I justify it because that’s what a private company is willing to pay him. And they wouldn’t pay that unless they felt he was worth it. He must be the reason the LA Clippers can fill seats for every game.
Again, it’s just like an actor. I don’t think Vin Diesel could act his way out of a wet paper bag but studios will pay him millions upon millions of dollars because his movies make billions.
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The system of free agency, drafting, rights to a player’s services under contract and other structural pieces all act to give you some really overpaid and really underpaid athletes. It averages. No sense in blowing up the system if both sides agree. The Niner’s QB Brock Purdy is a good example of an underpaid athlete, based on results, last year not withstanding. Ben Simmons couldn’t attract a pack of German Shepherds to a meat market.
That said, nobody … and I mean NObody, plays Vin Diesel like Vin Diesel.
…with the possible exception of Jason Statham.
Hey I didn’t ’say I didn’t like Vin Diesel. Matter of fact, I think he’s pretty hot.
My only point is talent only has half(?) to do with how much an actor or athlete is paid. It’s all about which actor/athlete can draw a crowd or sell some car insurance.
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Btw, I just wanted to make one more point on why I think how much athletes and actors make is fine.
Let’s say that Pepsi said “Hey Jailbreaker, we want to put your face on every piece of Pepsi product. We’ll offer you 50m to do it.” Pepsi then makes 100b dollars off Pepsi that year.
Does 50m sound like you were paid too much to do nothing when Pepsi made that much money off your face?
They are overpaid, so are actors, and musicians. And streamers are a joke even if they are entertaining at times.