Hmmm, how loud does $40 million a year talk?
Have you heard about the contract that New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge just signed? If not, here is the figure: $360 million for nine years which equates to $40 million per year. Yes, you read that figure correctly: $40 million per year. I think that falls into the category of more money than you know what to do with.
It is an obscene amount of money for one person to be pulling down. Yes, he is the league MVP. But that does not make the amount any less outrageous. Baseball pays well. Hockey does too although not quite as well. Nathan MacKinnon, franchise player for the Colorado Avalanche, gets $12.6 million per year for 8 years. A bargain by comparison, but still obscene.
Yes, these men are elite athletes at the top of their profession. They are the best of the best. But I cannot help but wonder how a person earning such a salary can morally justify it in the context of the world today where many struggle to put food on the table.
A bit of perspective. A person who earns an average of $40,000 per year over the course of their working life – 40 years for illustrative purposes – would earn $1.8 million in his or her lifetime. That is 4.5% of what Judge will earn in one year.
I am tempted to do the math from the perspective of someone working at minimum wage for their lifetime. But that would be an exercise ending in even greater moral outrage.
I have heard people defend professional athletes earning mega salaries by pointing out that some of them make large contributions to charitable organizations. My response is: Well, they damn well should! It would be boarding on criminal if they did not do so.
Long ago I came to terms with the fact that life is not fair. No one ever promised that it would be. Accepting that reality is critical to being able to achieve a measure of contentment in one’s life. But that argument breaks down in the face of this level of disparity,
Modern culture glorifies professional athletes. I will confess that I enjoy watching Maple Leafs Austin Matthews and Mitch Marner perform on the ice. They have honed their skills to a fine edge and deserve credit for doing so. But I still cannot justify the megabucks they earn.
Professional sports are big business in every sense of the word. The amount of revenue generated is staggering with television contracts being one of the cash cows involved. The economics is far beyond my reckoning. Superstar financial professionals creatively crunch the numbers to make it all work .
But I still come back to the basic question. How do you sleep peacefully at night knowing that you are earning more in one month than many people earn in a lifetime? I guess that falls into the category of good problems to have.
We often hear it said that money talks. In this context, it would seem to be saying. Great to be me. Sucks to be you. Excuse me while I rev up my Ferrari.
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Tags: Aaron Judge · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · money talks · Nathan MacKinnonNo Comments