Information Vs. Entertainment?

Question

The average yearly salary of a teacher is about $45,000.
The lowest yearly pay of a professional Baseball player is about $180,000. Read this article and give me your thoughts...
http://learnsomethingnewtoday.us/2007/12/21/information-vs-entertainment/

Answer 1

The point that's missing there is that the Entertainers - the Athletes and the Performers - are SELLING something. They're selling entertainment, and people are willing to pay them handsomely for their product.

Teachers are doing a job, much like accountants, computer programmers, secretaries, and the hundreds of other professions. Most are employees of the government. Public school teachers are paid by the taxes collected from the community. If a teacher makes $45,000 annually, and the intent is to raise that pay to $70,000, and assuming that 20% of the tax money goes toward the schools, and half of that goes toward teachers’ salaries, then each community would require a tax increase of about 17%.

Now I work in a large corporation in a mid-level position, like the majority of the employees here. 9% of the employees at my company are in Director, VP, or executive positions. The other 91% of us are just the workers – the same as Teachers. I perform important functions for my company, and I make the company money every day – a lot more money than they pay me. That does not entitle me to a raise, or to a promotion, or anything else. It means that I’m doing my job. If I don’t like what I’m getting paid, I can do some things about it – I can further my education in hopes of using that to move up, or out. A Teacher can get a Masters Degree and AUTOMATICALLY get a raise. Nothing required except to inform the school administration that they’ve completed their Masters Degree coursework and received their diploma. If I become stagnant after 5 or 6 years on the job, I will not receive pay raises, or I will be put on disciplinary action, or I will be fired. If a teacher works at his or her school for 3 or 4 years, they receive tenure, and can never be fired, unless they break their contract or the law. A teacher can also proctor after-school activities; coaching, school plays, study hall, etc. to earn extra money.

Teachers are valuable to our society, and should be respected for the career that they have chosen, but don’t cry for their lives or their finances. They work hard and they earn their paychecks, but so does everyone else.

To compare a teacher to an Athlete is as valid a comparison as a 7-Eleven Clerk to a rock star. For every professional athlete, there are 100 wannabe’s struggling in the minor leagues, lamenting their injuries, or languishing in despair over a failed career. For every Rock star making bank on their most recent concert tour there are thousands of garage bands working full-time, menial jobs to support the expenses of their band, and their dream. Unemployment rates for teachers is 0.4% - for every 1,000 teachers, 996 of them have jobs.

And, teachers are paid for 10 months work. If a teacher works summer school, they are paid extra. What other profession gets time off at Christmas and New Years, a spring break, and summers off?

So with teaching comes job security, the lowest unemployment rates in the country, and guaranteed pay raises with continuing education, and no requirement to excel at their profession. If the same were true of athletes, I guarantee that attendance would fall, prices would be reduced, and salaries would plummet.

Answer 2

A good teacher is worth more than all of the money in the world! They are responsible for molding our children. A good teacher should be paid more. Bad teachers should be eliminated and thrown out of the system.

Sport players should be paid according to what the market is willing to pay them. They are entertainers...nothing more.

Answer 3

This is sad.....My aunt, 2 of my cousins, and a great aunt were all teachers and its sad how they couldnot afford to pay bills. My aunt now has two jobs just to pay for her master's degree and to take care of her son. All a baseball player has to do is to hit and catch a ball and get twice as much! WTF!!!!

THIS HAS TO CHANGE

Answer 4

I think teachers are paid too much considering the education of the kids out there today that are not qualified to get good jobs...
I could live on what teachers get paid easy...

Answer 5

Information is our NEEDS and entertainment is our WANTS. Sad, isn't it?