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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elroy who wrote (315965)	12/16/2006 10:50:18 AM
From: 10K a day	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576884

>>they should be paid less because the system doesn't need to pay them that much<< It's really no different. Insurance Co's are the middle man. They regulate the cost of health care through buying people like Governor Schwartzeneger. California is reimbursed 52nd highest in the nation in Medi Care and Medi Cal. The cost of living in California is very high. (Insurance co's are recording record profits, witness HealthNet.) What is wrong with this picture. Well i'll tell you. There is too much govt Dead Wood and regulation in health care. (The govt tape worm has become too large) I had a call from an insurance adjuster yesterday and she was complaining that a doctor was giving her the "run around" I just laughed. I don't think athletes would like it too much if govt suddenly wanted a BIGGER piece of the action.

To: Elroy who wrote (315965)	12/18/2006 12:44:19 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1576884

they should be paid less because the system doesn't need to pay them that much. What mechanism would you use to lower their pay? If baseball player salaries are capped at (I don't know the number, say $150k), there will still be millions of athletes that will pursue the job. There aren't millions, or even thousands, probably not hundreds, of people with the talent to play at the highest level. There are millions, maybe many millions of people who can play decent baseball (or football, or basketball), and thousands who can play extraordinarily well) well, but only few who would legitimately rank among the very best. Teams bid on that scarce commodity. And you can't make up the difference by hiring 1000 players with AA potential, as only so many players can play at the same time. Winning helps bring in money, better players help you win. In athletics, there could perhaps be price controls on events Price controls are almost always a bad idea. Often bad morally and practically. The amount of justification required to get me to support price controls (meaning government imposed price floors and/or ceilings, not just careful budgeting of expenses) in any situation, would have to be staggering. something under monopoly laws since most people have one team to support in their area There are often multiple teams, just usually one team in a particular league. You might have a pro team, and a AA team, and maybe a college team. How you define a monopoly depends on how you define the market. If you mean one team in a particular league, or one pro team playing at the highest level in a particular sport, well then yes, you often have only one team, but frequently one team per market is all that can be supported. (and a few of the larger markets do have more then one team). If this "monopoly" (or its league) tried to stop a competitive league using illegal tactics it could face legal punishment, but there isn't anything illegal about being a monopoly.

To: Elroy who wrote (315965)	12/20/2006 2:27:07 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576884

They should be paid less not because they are stealing their wages or because the current system allows them to earn that much, they should be paid less because the system doesn't need to pay them that much. If baseball player salaries are capped at (I don't know the number, say $150k), there will still be millions of athletes that will pursue the job. Same with singer, actor, entertainer, etc. Those jobs are extremelely pleasurable, so even if wages are cut the supply of athletes/artists won't be cut meaningfully. It may in fact be improved because we'd have entertainers pursuing their art more for love of the art than to make some dough. I agree. Capping works for the NFL; why can't it work for baseball.