No One is Worth That

I am sure that sometime or another in the past 11+ years of these pilgrim wanderings I have said this before, but I don't feel like looking for it. So I have said it again in reaction to the Florida Marlins signing a contract with Giancarlo Stanton for 13 years and $325 million. That's a piddlin' $25 million per year.

I love baseball! I like a number of sports, but baseball is just below being a Packer fan (i.e.- not quite up to the status of a religion!) But no one, absolutely no one is worth $25 million per year to play any sport. Like with news, we have developed a 24/7/365 sports mindset. These baseball stars are the front men, the visible entities for an industry that is worth trillions of dollars. To the owner, a superstar is worth $25 million per year for the possibilities, the investment in fan loyalty, the possible return on investment.

What I find most intriguing about this story, though, is not the rant-worthiness of the salary, it's that this contract is from a team which had a complete team salary of only $46 million last year. This one salary jump is more than half of the total salary from this year. It makes me wonder what happened that the owner decided to open the checkbook and give away the farm. Somewhere there's a bottom line number that is way too enchanting too the owner.

I am not good at boycotting things I like, so I have not boycotted either baseball or football in their craziness over salaries. I go to the Twins games and was angry when they almost downsized the league by dropping them a number of years go. That makes me part of the problem, I know. If all of us who find the situation ludicrous did actually boycott, something might happen, though I am doubtful because we are the "masses" who are being entertained by these millionaires making billionaires out of the owners while we pay our shrinking dollars for over-priced hot dogs, beers, or sodas.

As long as we (me, too!) want to be entertained by sports, this won't change.But it is, perhaps, a sign of something less than healthy in our human psyche.

A Yearly Reflection

I think of this a number of times a year, but none as much as on Black Friday. I listen to the run-up to the "holiday shopping" season and find myself in the same place, year-in and year-out. Now, in this continuing time of a "recession" or whatever it is now, it is all the more worrisome.

It boils down to one huge and overwhelming thought:

Unless you go out and spend lots of money our economy is going to be in trouble. Unless you plan on being A Consumer, you will not be doing your All-American Patriotic duty.

It scares me with that every year. We get castigated for saving too much or not spending enough. No one ever tells me that I need to save more and spend less- except for the debt relief agencies. No one tells me that it might be a good idea to give fewer gifts this Christmas, or at least more meaningful ones.

There is something off-balance with a system that needs to push more and more products on more and more people every year in order to do more business and make more profit than last year. No, I am not being a Scrooge. I like giving gifts for Christmas; I like receiving gifts for Christmas. But as a civic duty? Buy a car and put it in the living room with a cute BIG bow on it? Diamonds and big screen TVs?

I don't know for sure what I am going to do this season this year. As I get closer to retirement age I am more and more aware that the day will be coming when I will not have the resources I do today. I won't need as much, either. So I won't buy as much superfluous stuff. I am sure Target and Wal-Mart and Best Buy and all the others who kept the newspapers alive for another week with their ads yesterday will think I am not really being caring and helpful. How can I truly celebrate Christmas if I am spending less than before?

And I haven't even mentioned the Baby Jesus in a bare stable.