What makes a career more profitable?

[Mathematician]

Why do professional athletes get payed millions while the average soldier scrapes the bottom of the military budget? Are janitors any less important than doctors? Should any profession be assigned with a certain level of income, or is this just another plight of human greed?

 

[Aqualung]

Millions of people watch basketball games in any given year. That's like only a dollar per person. On the other hand, the nation is very divided when it comes to military spending. Janitors are less important than doctors, yes. Doctors can identify diseases and save your life, potentially adding years to your life. Janitors just give everybody else slightly more freetime, since they do the cleaning for us.

 

[Reverend Rick]

Why not bring up CEO salaries? It has been my experience that people have to earn their salaries or their not making them very long.

 

[Comprehend]

scarcity of ability.

There are 100 million people in the US who could be soldiers but only a few hundred who can play in the NBA.

There are very few who could not be a janitor but very few who could succeed in medical school and out of those few a small percentage will be good enough to become surgeons.

It has very little to do with greed and a great deal to do with ability. If everyone could do what Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods can do, then it wouldn't be worth any money or very little.

 

[Bishka]

Also, the idea that people spend more of their money on what they want, ejoy and like instead of waht is needed or what should be important.​

 

[michel]

Why do professional athletes get payed millions while the average soldier scrapes the bottom of the military budget? Are janitors any less important than doctors? Should any profession be assigned with a certain level of income, or is this just another plight of human greed?

Because the public love them, and want them. Supply and demand; the usual financial reasons.........

Totally absurd, of course.............

 

[Mr. Hair]

Are janitors any less important than doctors?

Individually; yes, as (to put it simply) there are more potential janitors then there are potential doctors in a typical society.

Collectively; I don't know, I'd guess that the relative importance of both professions would depend upon one's perspective. Clearly however, both excise at least some functional importance within most given societies.

Should any profession be assigned with a certain level of income,

No, such levels of income should be divined and assigned by the workings of market forces.

or is this just another plight of human greed?

Define "human greed".

It has very little to do with greed and a great deal to do with ability.

*nods*

Let's also not forget the role of financial demand in the equation. Individually, generally there is far greater demand for the services of, say, one world-class professional athlete then for one soldier, and therefore people are typically willing to pay higher amounts of money in return for the afore-mentioned services of the former.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

scarcity of ability.

There are 100 million people in the US who could be soldiers but only a few hundred who can play in the NBA.

There are very few who could not be a janitor but very few who could succeed in medical school and out of those few a small percentage will be good enough to become surgeons.

It has very little to do with greed and a great deal to do with ability. If everyone could do what Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods can do, then it wouldn't be worth any money or very little.

Mostly true.

Try looking around the performing arts industry. There are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of undiscovered talent that would put most Broadway stars to shame. I would say that it isn't merely scarcity of talent, but Michel's point, too, of the basics of macreoeconomics........."supply and demand." More people get off by watching the NFL or another young chick baring her belly button on MTV than watching a prima ballerina grace the stage.

The proof is in the pudding: American Idol numbers VS. A&E numbers. I'd be willing to bet more Americans know who Kelly Clarkson is than who Rudolph Nureyev was. Or Gelsey Kirkland. And VERY VERY few people can ever do what those ballet dancers could do.




Peace,
Mystic