Obscene laws of supply and demand
Paddy Lewis
Stories about All Blacks being drunk, favourites getting knocked out in the quarter finals (well, we know all about that), the IRB being hopeless….so much material for a column.
Nevertheless, I wanted to go back a bit to a story that broke a few weeks ago:
And attack it by going forward to a something that started on Wall Street and is – stupidly enough – going to target the New Zealand Stock Exchange on Saturday…a non-work day, last time I looked.
The Occupy Wall Street movement (coming to Wellington on Saturday with a crowd of at least 10 people) is apparently against financial greed and corruption.
So they’re targeting the people who create the wealth? Without wanting to get into a political argument, I have a more pertinent target for their efforts.
Carlos Tevez.
The Manchester City striker refused to come on as a replacement in a Champions League match against Bayern Munich. To be fair, City were down 2-0 and didn’t look like making any headway, but still – when you are getting paid NZ$446,500 a week, you ought to do what you are told.
I’ve often thought the salaries paid to some professional sports people are obscene. I’m a free-market, laissez-faire kinda guy, but I cannot possibly see how a salary that would allow one person to buy two houses a week in Naenae could possibly be justified.
Now, I know all about supply and demand. And I’m aware of the argument that says professional sportspeople (at Tevez’s level) are seen by their employers as ‘entertainers’, like Hollywood actors. I know football contributes an enormous amount to the UK gross domestic product.
But half a mill a week to play a sport is just obscene – no matter how much practice you have done, no matter how good you are.
Once again, however,I am gazumped - as Ben Pinckney says on the tbhr.co.uk blog:
“Football, financially may be obscene in empirical terms, however it can be considered footballers are paid according to their economic worth. The market and employers demand as such, and will receive respectively. Who is to say that Ronaldo is not worth, hypothetically speaking, £8 million per annum if he were to remunerate £12 million in that same season? It makes perfect business sense.”
In the same article, he points out that a NZ$162 million transfer pays for itself over the life of the contract – regardless of on pitch performance.
Why is that?
Essentially, because people love their teams and their players and will buy SKY subscriptions and replica jerseys and match tickets and whatever else the marketing whizzes come up with.
We see it here. There are more people wearing the new All Blacks jersey than I care to count (P.S. you have to earn the Fern, kids).
It is a classic free-market situation. It’s people like you and I who perpetuate these player salaries, if you are someone who supports a sports team.
So maybe the Occupy Wall St and Occupy Wellington activists have got it all arse about face. Instead of hitting the icons of capitalist society, wouldn’t we be better to turn up at Joe Bloggs’ place on a Saturday with a crate of home brewed (not store bought – that’s supporting The Man) beer and just stop conspicuous consumption through lethargy and hangovers?
Oh, hang on – how could we watch the game without paying for SKY? This all seems a bit too hard. Maybe Have A Lie Down And A Sleep would be better than all this anti-capitalist stuff. I know I’m keen on that.
Nevertheless, I wanted to go back a bit to a story that broke a few weeks ago:
And attack it by going forward to a something that started on Wall Street and is – stupidly enough – going to target the New Zealand Stock Exchange on Saturday…a non-work day, last time I looked.
The Occupy Wall Street movement (coming to Wellington on Saturday with a crowd of at least 10 people) is apparently against financial greed and corruption.
So they’re targeting the people who create the wealth? Without wanting to get into a political argument, I have a more pertinent target for their efforts.
Carlos Tevez.
The Manchester City striker refused to come on as a replacement in a Champions League match against Bayern Munich. To be fair, City were down 2-0 and didn’t look like making any headway, but still – when you are getting paid NZ$446,500 a week, you ought to do what you are told.
I’ve often thought the salaries paid to some professional sports people are obscene. I’m a free-market, laissez-faire kinda guy, but I cannot possibly see how a salary that would allow one person to buy two houses a week in Naenae could possibly be justified.
Now, I know all about supply and demand. And I’m aware of the argument that says professional sportspeople (at Tevez’s level) are seen by their employers as ‘entertainers’, like Hollywood actors. I know football contributes an enormous amount to the UK gross domestic product.
But half a mill a week to play a sport is just obscene – no matter how much practice you have done, no matter how good you are.
Once again, however,I am gazumped - as Ben Pinckney says on the tbhr.co.uk blog:
“Football, financially may be obscene in empirical terms, however it can be considered footballers are paid according to their economic worth. The market and employers demand as such, and will receive respectively. Who is to say that Ronaldo is not worth, hypothetically speaking, £8 million per annum if he were to remunerate £12 million in that same season? It makes perfect business sense.”
In the same article, he points out that a NZ$162 million transfer pays for itself over the life of the contract – regardless of on pitch performance.
Why is that?
Essentially, because people love their teams and their players and will buy SKY subscriptions and replica jerseys and match tickets and whatever else the marketing whizzes come up with.
We see it here. There are more people wearing the new All Blacks jersey than I care to count (P.S. you have to earn the Fern, kids).
It is a classic free-market situation. It’s people like you and I who perpetuate these player salaries, if you are someone who supports a sports team.
So maybe the Occupy Wall St and Occupy Wellington activists have got it all arse about face. Instead of hitting the icons of capitalist society, wouldn’t we be better to turn up at Joe Bloggs’ place on a Saturday with a crate of home brewed (not store bought – that’s supporting The Man) beer and just stop conspicuous consumption through lethargy and hangovers?
Oh, hang on – how could we watch the game without paying for SKY? This all seems a bit too hard. Maybe Have A Lie Down And A Sleep would be better than all this anti-capitalist stuff. I know I’m keen on that.
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