Any more lockouts and I'm done.

[superjames1992]

Re: Any more lockouts and I'm done.

I really don't think it's fair to call any professional athlete "greedy" because they want more money than they already make. Sure they have plenty of money to live on. But taking a step back and looking at the world as a whole, aren't we in the United States the same way? The average family makes what, 40-50 thousand dollars a year? That must be far above the average family world wide. Yet people in that range are always looking for promotions and any way to make life a bit more comfortable.

It's completely possible to live on 20 thousand dollars a year, and even less, but to afford us all of our fancy gadgets, our nice houses, our many meals, etc., we all want excess money. Isn't that greed?

Then we see unions striking for more money in the real world so they can secure contracts in the average US wage range. Relative to the world, isn't that greed?

And if so, do those people have any right to criticize athletes for holding out or striking?

Granted, taking the world as a whole may be a bit extreme, but athletes' lives are also an extreme that 99.99% of Americans are unfamiliar with specifically. So it's not really fair to compare them to the average family in their earnings and what not.

I just don't think it's fair to write athletes off as greedy without first taking a look at ourselves. Actually, IMO, humans are naturally greedy and it is the reason why we are so ambitious and such an advanced society.

The average income in the world is $7,000, although that is far from telling the true tale. In reality, only 19% of the world makes that much or greater. The world median income is $1,700. We spend that much on plasma TVs.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2007/10/07/average_earnings_worldwide/

[mKoz26]

Re: Any more lockouts and I'm done.

The average income in the world is $7,000, although that is far from telling the true tale. In reality, only 19% of the world makes that much or greater. The world median income is $1,700. We spend that much on plasma TVs.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/art...ngs_worldwide/

Exactly. We're all greedy but we don't tend to think of ourselves that way because we still have struggles. But we don't see how light our struggles are compared to those facing true poverty.

[dan_457]

Re: Any more lockouts and I'm done.

The average income in the world is $7,000, although that is far from telling the true tale. In reality, only 19% of the world makes that much or greater. The world median income is $1,700. We spend that much on plasma TVs.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/art...ngs_worldwide/

My plasma was 400$(42 inches too) errr... wait

What I will never understand is why the rich always want to get richer. If you're a middle class family, wanting more money to provide better things for your family makes sense. A multi-millionaire wanting more money I don't really get.

What I hate about a lock out is the people it really affects, the little guys. A lot of local business' thrive off all the people coming to the area for the games, and what about the people who work at the stadiums? It seems like no one cares if they get shafted.

[mKoz26]

Re: Any more lockouts and I'm done.

My plasma was 400$(42 inches too) errr... wait

What I will never understand is why the rich always want to get richer. If you're a middle class family, wanting more money to provide better things for your family makes sense. A multi-millionaire wanting more money I don't really get.

What I hate about a lock out is the people it really affects, the little guys. A lot of local business' thrive off all the people coming to the area for the games, and what about the people who work at the stadiums? It seems like no one cares if they get shafted.

We're only middle-class in America. Just like how some of them are middle-class among their respective social group.

People in impoverished country A probably can't understand why we'd want another 10 thousand dollars when that is more than enough to live on in their country.

See the issue with comparing us to athletes now?

[dan_457]

Re: Any more lockouts and I'm done.

We're only middle-class in America. Just like how some of them are middle-class among their respective social group.

People in impoverished country A probably can't understand why we'd want another 10 thousand dollars when that is more than enough to live on in their country.

See the issue with comparing us to athletes now?

No because we live in the same country and economy, Athletes aren't on some other level. Middle class is more than enough to live comfortably in America, What could they need that the the rest of us don't, seriously? Is it if they don't have at least 6 cars parked in front of their mansion they can't sleep at night?

[mKoz26]

Re: Any more lockouts and I'm done.

No because we live in the same country and economy, Athletes aren't on some other level. Middle class is more than enough to live comfortably in America, What could they need that the the rest of us don't, seriously? Is it if they don't have at least 6 cars parked in front of their mansion they can't sleep at night?

If you don't have a flat-screen television can you not sleep at night?

Take Christmas for example. Isn't Christmas an overly-abundant celebration and completely unnecessary? How is 6 cars greedy but not a video game system and a bunch of new over-priced clothing?

You only think one is more greedy because you have grown up in a culture of material abundance of a certain level but not quite at an athlete's level.

I don't think greed is a bad thing for what it's worth.

[dan_457]

Re: Any more lockouts and I'm done.

If you don't have a flat-screen television can you not sleep at night?

Take Christmas for example. Isn't Christmas an overly-abundant celebration and completely unnecessary? How is 6 cars greedy but not a video game system and a bunch of new over-priced clothing?

You only think one is more greedy because you have grown up in a culture of material abundance of a certain level but not quite at an athlete's level.

I don't think greed is a bad thing for what it's worth.

lol i used a 19 inch tv for almost 10 years.

Seriously comparing a video game system and clothes to 6 cars? You only need one Automobile to actually get to point A to point B, and it doesn't need to have 4 tv's in it and 20" rims to do it either. There's improving quality of life, then there's gluttony. These athletes already live in Abundance, and they want more, as I've said that's the part I don't get. Modern Culture is heavily steeped in materialism, i don't have a problem with that, the problem is that even the Rich want to get Richer, and they don't care who that affects.

Athletes They already have the money to buy almost anything they want, and really what more do they want? At some point it seems more like an Ego thing than anything else.

[mKoz26]

Re: Any more lockouts and I'm done.

lol i used a 19 inch tv for almost 10 years.

Seriously comparing a video game system and clothes to 6 cars? You only need one Automobile to actually get to point A to point B, and it doesn't need to have 4 tv's in it and 20" rims to do it either. There's improving quality of life, then there's gluttony. These athletes already live in Abundance, and they want more, as I've said that's the part I don't get. Modern Culture is heavily steeped in materialism, i don't have a problem with that, the problem is that even the Rich want to get Richer, and they don't care who that affects.

Athletes They already have the money to buy almost anything they want, and really what more do they want? At some point it seems more like an Ego thing than anything else.

You still don't get it.

We, middle class citizens, are considered "the rich" compared to the rest of the world.

I don't understand how you're missing this. You're so incredibly fortunate to be living where you are in the conditions you live, and you don't even realize it. A video game system is a ridiculous good and completely unnecessary to a person living in a third-world country. 6 cars is a ridiculous abundance of goods and completely unnecessary to middle-class Americans.

But both are unnecessary to someone. If we can consider athletes greedy (because they have and want more than us), why can't these impoverished people consider us greedy (because we have and want more than them).

There's a lot more to life and the world than just America's material abundance.

Again, we're all greedy as middle-class Americans. And it's not necessarily a bad thing.

[dan_457]

Re: Any more lockouts and I'm done.

You still don't get it.

We, middle class citizens, are considered "the rich" compared to the rest of the world.

I don't understand how you're missing this. You're so incredibly fortunate to be living where you are in the conditions you live, and you don't even realize it. A video game system is a ridiculous good and completely unnecessary to a person living in a third-world country. 6 cars is a ridiculous abundance of goods and completely unnecessary to middle-class Americans.

But both are unnecessary to someone. If we can consider athletes greedy (because they have and want more than us), why can't these impoverished people consider us greedy (because we have and want more than them).

There's a lot more to life and the world than just America's material abundance.

Again, we're all greedy as middle-class Americans. And it's not necessarily a bad thing.

You think I don't understand how fortunate we are? Or how people in the third world consider us the gluttons of the world? But This isn't about the rest of the world. I do get your perspective more now though.

I never said we weren't greedy, Materialism is part of America and Capitalism, and sometimes that can be a tough pill to swallow for me, when part of capitalism can mean running over everyone in your way.

Really, like I said in an earlier post, my biggest issue isn't what the players want, but how this affects all the people that an NFL lock out hurts, they are the real afterthoughts here.

Anyway i get where you're coming from(i think anyway XD), it does seem hypocritical to bitch about the millionaires, when most of the world would love to have even half the crap we have.

[SPTO]

Re: Any more lockouts and I'm done.

Well Apostle, if you're a soccer fan then I guess you're done.

Serie A strike likely

[12]

Re: Any more lockouts and I'm done.

I really don't think it's fair to call any professional athlete "greedy" because they want more money than they already make. Sure they have plenty of money to live on. But taking a step back and looking at the world as a whole, aren't we in the United States the same way? The average family makes what, 40-50 thousand dollars a year? That must be far above the average family world wide. Yet people in that range are always looking for promotions and any way to make life a bit more comfortable.

It's completely possible to live on 20 thousand dollars a year, and even less, but to afford us all of our fancy gadgets, our nice houses, our many meals, etc., we all want excess money. Isn't that greed?

Then we see unions striking for more money in the real world so they can secure contracts in the average US wage range. Relative to the world, isn't that greed?

And if so, do those people have any right to criticize athletes for holding out or striking?

Granted, taking the world as a whole may be a bit extreme, but athletes' lives are also an extreme that 99.99% of Americans are unfamiliar with specifically. So it's not really fair to compare them to the average family in their earnings and what not.

I just don't think it's fair to write athletes off as greedy without first taking a look at ourselves. Actually, IMO, humans are naturally greedy and it is the reason why we are so ambitious and such an advanced society.

Good points. There's a lot of truth in that whole post.

[12]

Re: Any more lockouts and I'm done.

My plasma was 400$(42 inches too) errr... wait

What I will never understand is why the rich always want to get richer. If you're a middle class family, wanting more money to provide better things for your family makes sense. A multi-millionaire wanting more money I don't really get.

What I hate about a lock out is the people it really affects, the little guys. A lot of local business' thrive off all the people coming to the area for the games, and what about the people who work at the stadiums? It seems like no one cares if they get shafted.

That's kind of my question, too. I'm in the 40-50K range. I'm fairly young and support my wife and son. I have a mortgage that is very manageable and don't have any car payments. We live within our means and yet, times are tough. We can pay our bills and we do without the extras most of the time, but saving money has proven to be hard. Maybe I need to take a harder look at our finances. We're not broke, but sometimes it feels like it.

They don't worry about any of that. But I'd be lying if I didn't admit that some of these posts have made me see a bit of a different perspective, but not much has changed. I still don't think I could watch/support pro sports if more work stoppages are to occur.

[12]

Re: Any more lockouts and I'm done.

We're only middle-class in America. Just like how some of them are middle-class among their respective social group.

People in impoverished country A probably can't understand why we'd want another 10 thousand dollars when that is more than enough to live on in their country.

See the issue with comparing us to athletes now?

In my state (Washington), making anything less than 54K per year for a family of three is considered to be living in poverty. That's a scale that the state created, not me. I'd assume a lot of other states are the same way, so by your earlier statistic, 40-50K is living in the land of poverty for most people. Especially in these economic times.

[12]

Re: Any more lockouts and I'm done.

Well Apostle, if you're a soccer fan then I guess you're done.

Serie A strike likely

Good for me, I'm not. At all.

[12]

Re: Any more lockouts and I'm done.

I don't want this thread to turn into something that I never intended for it to turn into, but I guess when you create somewhat of a controversial topic, these things happen.

For the record, and in all honesty, this was never about what they have versus what I don't have. They can spend their money how they want. I am very fortunate to have the life and living that I do. I really don't want this thread to head in that direction.

My perspective is simple. Any more lockouts, and I'm going to have a tough time coming back. Not because the athletes are trying to get more money, but rather because the fans and employees who are not athletes will suffer. I invest time, energy and money into pro sports. As I mentioned before, I share Seahawks' season tickets with my brother, I go to Mariner games sparingly and I buy sports apparel for my teams. Pro sports, at least the NFL and MLB, are things I invest something of worth in. By choosing to not support them anymore if a lockout(s) occurs, I am only discontinuing the use of a product that I am unhappy with. People do that all the time with things - restaurants, retail stores, video games, etc... It's really no different.

That's the best way that I can explain it.