Gary A. Nilsen's Blog, page 5
August 27, 2012
Over-the-Top Baseball
I love baseball. Of all the spectator sports available for viewing, it’s the lure of baseball which draws me, when time permits, to the TV screen, and on occasion to the stadium itself. It’s the great American pastime. My mother loves baseball - I was violently rocked in my carriage as The Boys of Summer took the pennant in 1955. I was recently at a New York Mets game, as they faced the Atlanta Braves, with my son. What better way to carry on the tradition – a beer and a hot dog (he’s twelve, he had a coke) and watching a live baseball game together? But, even while I was luxuriating in the moment, sharing the day with my son, there was an undercurrent of awareness nibbling away at my pleasure.
Here’s why.
As I watched Chipper Jones step up to the plate in his very laid-back, I’m-a-great-player-so-watch-me-hit-the-ball sort of attitude, I could not help thinking, once again, about the significant amount of money the Atlanta organization has contributed to his career. His accumulated salary now stands in excess of $155 Million. That’s 155 with six zeros after it, and this nearly pales in comparison to the grand-daddy of all baseball salary earners – Alex Rodriguez - who tops the charts at over $296 Million – and counting.
On the face of it, that’s a lot of money. It gets worse when you add some perspective. The sum total of salary that has been paid to the top 100 baseball earners from 1985 to 2011 is a staggering $10.9 Trillion dollars. The 2011 enacted expenditures for the United States Federal Government was $3.63 Trillion - so the accumulated salaries of these one hundred men could have paid the entire tab for the whole country for three of its most expensive years. One hundred men!
In 2012 it would have cost you $193.66 to purchase what you could have purchased in 1988 for $100 – that’s a 194% increase. According to Baseball-Reference.com, the total payroll in 1988 (all 26 teams) was $294.8 Million. In 2012, the tab for the same 26 teams was $2.6 Billion – that’s an 884% increase. Doesn’t this suggest something is seriously out of whack? Since 1988, four more teams have been added, increasing the total amount spent on salaries by another $334.6 Million. Let’s not forget that this is only a form of entertainment. I have to blame people like the late George Steinbrenner for enabling this out-of-control spending, but we as consumers, quite literally, buy into it and perpetuate it.
In contrast, the Kaiser Family Foundation reports that the 2012 domestic total for HIV/AIDs programs and research is a little more than $21.3 Billion. The long term results for this kind of research can benefit an entire planet, especially in parts of the world where the epidemic is far more serious than it is in the United States. How much of a dent might we put into programs such as these if we were to rescale the amount of money being spent on sports figures and entertainment personalities?
So, the next time Alex Rodriguez (or pick any one of the star players of your choice) steps up to the plate, and your inclination is to cheer, think first about the true cost of that man standing there trying to hit a ball for the mere spectacle of entertainment. As for me, the true enjoyment of a vastly needed form of entertainment (we all need some form or another) is tainted forever.
Here’s why.
As I watched Chipper Jones step up to the plate in his very laid-back, I’m-a-great-player-so-watch-me-hit-the-ball sort of attitude, I could not help thinking, once again, about the significant amount of money the Atlanta organization has contributed to his career. His accumulated salary now stands in excess of $155 Million. That’s 155 with six zeros after it, and this nearly pales in comparison to the grand-daddy of all baseball salary earners – Alex Rodriguez - who tops the charts at over $296 Million – and counting.
On the face of it, that’s a lot of money. It gets worse when you add some perspective. The sum total of salary that has been paid to the top 100 baseball earners from 1985 to 2011 is a staggering $10.9 Trillion dollars. The 2011 enacted expenditures for the United States Federal Government was $3.63 Trillion - so the accumulated salaries of these one hundred men could have paid the entire tab for the whole country for three of its most expensive years. One hundred men!
In 2012 it would have cost you $193.66 to purchase what you could have purchased in 1988 for $100 – that’s a 194% increase. According to Baseball-Reference.com, the total payroll in 1988 (all 26 teams) was $294.8 Million. In 2012, the tab for the same 26 teams was $2.6 Billion – that’s an 884% increase. Doesn’t this suggest something is seriously out of whack? Since 1988, four more teams have been added, increasing the total amount spent on salaries by another $334.6 Million. Let’s not forget that this is only a form of entertainment. I have to blame people like the late George Steinbrenner for enabling this out-of-control spending, but we as consumers, quite literally, buy into it and perpetuate it.
In contrast, the Kaiser Family Foundation reports that the 2012 domestic total for HIV/AIDs programs and research is a little more than $21.3 Billion. The long term results for this kind of research can benefit an entire planet, especially in parts of the world where the epidemic is far more serious than it is in the United States. How much of a dent might we put into programs such as these if we were to rescale the amount of money being spent on sports figures and entertainment personalities?
So, the next time Alex Rodriguez (or pick any one of the star players of your choice) steps up to the plate, and your inclination is to cheer, think first about the true cost of that man standing there trying to hit a ball for the mere spectacle of entertainment. As for me, the true enjoyment of a vastly needed form of entertainment (we all need some form or another) is tainted forever.
August 6, 2012
Oil and Water
In 1900 there were 1.6 billion people on the planet - we will surpass 10 billion by the end of this century, there are only 43 years of oil left in the ground at the current rate of consumption, only 3% of the worlds water is potable, global warming will contribute to biodiversity loss, acidifying oceans, coral bleaching, thinning ice and rising seas, devastating heat waves, spread of disease and worsening air quality.
So here’s what I want to know. Does anyone have their eye on the ball? Are gains in technology being made, behind the scenes, which will render our dependence on oil moot, create sustainable drinking sources for the growing mass of people, and reduce carbon emissions that hopefully will yield a reversal in the declining condition of our atmosphere?
We see programs such as Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth come and go without much tangible evidence of its impact beyond some strides in automotive technology, some legislation to oversee the reduction of our carbon footprint – but is it enough? Will it be fast enough?
There is considerable focus on economic issues, political debate, endless squabbling over tax laws, Chik-fil-A discrimination, and the continuing drama of The Bachelorette, but it doesn’t take a genius to extrapolate the path of devastation that will result in the very short-term if we don’t actively and synergistically get a grip on issues that might simply be the preamble for the next extinction event. There have already been at least five of those since our little blue planet cooled down and we must not be so complacent to consider that we’re immune to the next one – one of our own causing.
So here’s what I want to know. Does anyone have their eye on the ball? Are gains in technology being made, behind the scenes, which will render our dependence on oil moot, create sustainable drinking sources for the growing mass of people, and reduce carbon emissions that hopefully will yield a reversal in the declining condition of our atmosphere?
We see programs such as Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth come and go without much tangible evidence of its impact beyond some strides in automotive technology, some legislation to oversee the reduction of our carbon footprint – but is it enough? Will it be fast enough?
There is considerable focus on economic issues, political debate, endless squabbling over tax laws, Chik-fil-A discrimination, and the continuing drama of The Bachelorette, but it doesn’t take a genius to extrapolate the path of devastation that will result in the very short-term if we don’t actively and synergistically get a grip on issues that might simply be the preamble for the next extinction event. There have already been at least five of those since our little blue planet cooled down and we must not be so complacent to consider that we’re immune to the next one – one of our own causing.
