[ExI] letter

[Dan TheBookMan]

On Dec 15, 2017, at 7:40 AM, Dave Sill <sparge at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> On Fri, Dec 15, 2017 at 10:22 AM, William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 1.6% of college football players make it to the pros. 

I think the same ratio also applies to other parts of the entertainment industry. After all, sports are entertainment. Not everyone take drama classes in college is going to earn a living in drama, for instance.

>> So what?  So after perhaps making tens of millions of dollars for their schools winning conference titles, bowl games, the vast majority of the players graduate having gotten mostly nothing in return.
>> 
>> It is time to pay the players.  Where else do we see employees contribute a great deal to the organization's bottom line and get a pittance in return?
>> 
>> The idea that they are amateurs is ludicrous.  Even the Olympic organization got the right idea on that awhile back.  How much has Michael Phelps put in the bank?
>> 
>> It is not a question of having the money. It's a question of sharing it.  The players and coaches earned it.  The coaches certainly get their share and their schools too.  The real money makers get next to nothing - tuition, books, a very few spending dollars.
>> 
>> This blatant hypocrisy needs to stop.  This is slave labor, isn't it?  Where else can they market their skills?  Nowhere.
>> 
>> Outside of actual slavery, I can't think of another situation that is this unfair.  Absolutely unAmerican.
> 
> The better players get athletic scholarships. That's substantial. Athletics are voluntary: nobody is making anyone play football. Ask players why they play. I think most just enjoy playing the game and the experience of being a varsity athlete. I'd be in favor of removing obstacles to paying athletes but I hardly think it's comparable to slavery.

By the way, American football might be voluntary for the players, but it’s not voluntary for the taxpayers at the high school, college, and pro levels:

https://www.reason.com/blog/2017/09/07/stop-subsidizing-football/

I think even better than pay sharing deals would be dismantling all these subsidies. By the way, recall this story:

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-stadium-arms-race-snap-story.html

Regards,

Dan
   Sample my latest Kindle book "Sand Trap":
http://mybook.to/SandTrap


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20171215/b65dd1af/attachment.html>