[quote=no_such_reality]CAR, if people didn’t line up in droves to buy the cr*p, those obscenely paid athletes wouldn’t get paid.
As for idiot boy, I can choose not to pay to see his events, I can choose not to watch his events, I can choose to buy his sponsors competitor’s products.
That last part is the key. For sponsors like Callaway, his largest sponsor, it’s as difficult as picking up the competitors clubs standing next to the sponsors clubs in the golf shop.
For Exxon, probably 50% of the time, the competitor is literally on one of the other three corners of the intersection.
To choose different cops, or teachers, or governmental bureaucracy, it’s sell the house, move, change schools, uproot/close/restart your business.
Now for math. The masters has about 7 Million people watching it live. Most of them are tuning it to watch probably less than 10 of the players.
On Sunday, over 100 Million people are expected to watch the Superbowl.
Every month Oprah use to pick a book, it pretty much instantly sold a million plus copies.
That elementary teacher has 20 kids in their class.
Now if the teacher inspires every kid’s parents to spend an average of $1000, they’ll have $20,000 for the school.
On Sunday, if they inspire 1 in 10 viewers an average spend of $100, they’ll have $10,000,000,000.[/quote]
More often than not, even the competitors’ products will be from companies who advertise and who have massively overpaid executives, etc. We do not *really* have a choice, and that is the point I’m trying to make. We are forced to pay someone’s bloated salary/wages/commissions because we need to buy “stuff” in order to live. Try making it through life in Southern California without a car, without gasoline, without a credit card, without soaps, shampoos, paper towels, napkins, clothing, etc. (even store brands use advertising), even cable/internet/cell phone because we are now expected to electronically submit employment applications and be available electronically for most jobs.
Whether private or public, most of us feel that we have to “overpay” somebody in order to get through life. We do not have a choice unless we build an off-grid hut in the mountains and live off the land.
