Athletes Salaries v. Average Joe

In today's day in age, the economy is on a very slow rebound from the recent economic downturn we've been experiencing since 2008. Each month, the national unemployment rate continues to rise, currently standing at 9.7%, which represents 14.9 million Americans out of work.

According to statistics supplied by PayScale which publishes online compensation data for individual employees and businesses the average salary for American workers is $52,000. Normally, the average age for retirement is 65, so assuming someone works from the age of 23 straight to 65 with no salary flux, it would take the "average Joe" 42 years to make approximately $2.2 million dollars, without paying taxes, bills, expenses, etc.

The minimum salary for a FIRST year NFL player is $285,000 (which would take "average Joe" 5.5 years to make), minimum salary of FIRST year NBA players make $473,000 (9 years for "average Joe"), and minimum FIRST year MLB players make $380,000 (7.3 years for "average" Joe). Are we seeing something wrong with this?

The top five most rich athletes are as follows: Tiger Woods - $100 million (approx. 1,923 years for "average Joe"), Oscar De La Hoya - $43 million (approx. 827 years for "average Joe"), Phil Mickelson - $42.2 million (approx. 812 years for "average Joe"), Kimi Raikkonen - $40 million (approx. 769 years for "average Joe"), and Michael Schumacher - $36 million (approx. 692 years for "average Joe").

The system in which athletes are paid is broken. While nearly 15 million Americans are out of work and are only looking for jobs that'll put food on the table, athletes are making millions of dollars for providing a type of entertainment to the American public. In the coming years, athletes salaries will likely increase, while more Americans find themselves out of work.

In the society we live in, many will complain how rich athletes are becoming, but do nothing about it. By not going to games, purchasing sports networks, and going without buying memorabilia, revenue for teams will go down, forcing them to cut back on salaries. While it sounds too simple and critics will say "it's much more complicated than that," it really isn't. If there are large groups who follow this, see what happens.

Take a stand for once.