Overpaid Jobs

[sanantone]

NFL Players 

Profit sharing, at it's finest.  When the league starts making less, the players will be the first to see cuts in pay.  Besides, they put their bodies and brains on the line for their money.  Not worth it in my opinion. 

I agree. Fans willingly give billions to the NFL and NBA by purchasing merchandise, tickets, and cable sports packages. The games also make money off of advertising because so many people choose to watch. Why should the owners make millions and not the players?

Yeah, their bodies are beaten up before the age of 40, and football players' brains are scrambled eggs by the time they die.

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I agree it makes sense that market forces drive the pay way up for some things. However military, law enforcement, fire fighters, etc put their bodies and lives on the line for less than 1% of what some of the NFL players make and they do it for real causes(not just entertainment). That's just how life is, though.

People don't want to pay taxes for that.

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NFL Players

Profit sharing, at it's finest.  When the league starts making less, the players will be the first to see cuts in pay.  Besides, they put their bodies and brains on the line for their money.  Not worth it in my opinion. 

I agree. Fans willingly give billions to the NFL and NBA by purchasing merchandise, tickets, and cable sports packages. The games also make money off of advertising because so many people choose to watch. Why should the owners make millions and not the players?

Yeah, their bodies are beaten up before the age of 40, and football players' brains are scrambled eggs by the time they die.

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I agree it makes sense that market forces drive the pay way up for some things. However military, law enforcement, fire fighters, etc put their bodies and lives on the line for less than 1% of what some of the NFL players make and they do it for real causes(not just entertainment). That's just how life is, though.

You're comparing apples to oranges.  You just have to go with the market.  If there are enough people that can pass the test and are willing to be police, firefighters, etc. for the pay, then you're paying them enough.  If you can't get enough people to take the job, then you're not paying enough, and you'll have to up the pay.  Eventually, the market evens out.

When a city decides to pay MORE than the job is worth, you know because you'll get a TON of people applying, and have so many qualified applicants that you don't know what to do with them all. At that point, they SHOULD lower the pay, but they don't (at least, not here in CA where firefighters in some cities earn $150k+ and 90% of their highest salary after retirement).  This is how our state has billions of dollars in unfunded pension liabilities, with no end in sight.  When you're paying 3, 4, 5 retired people for every job, you're in trouble.  If the pay wasn't SO great (and retirement is included in this), it might be manageable (fewer people retiring so early, because they can afford to live the exact same lifestyle as they had when they worked).

Again, it's the market that works this out - government just gets in the way of that.

Market forces don't work in government jobs. The government will go decades with departments understaffed because taxpayers think that wages come out of thin air.