Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, I find myself paying more attention to the social justice warrior memes posted hourly on Facebook. I am probably paying more attention to this stuff than I should, but unlike most people, who simply hit like or love and become part of the “amen corner”, I feel compelled to counter whatever SJW fallacy is being pushed by the meme.
Below is the meme I wish to debunk today:
A couple of house notes before I proceed…
Firstly, this meme compares a British footballer (aka: a soccer player) to a healthcare worker (ostensibly, a nurse).
Secondly, the amounts of their respective compensation per hour is in British Pounds, not U.S. Dollars, so for context, the above amounts in dollars (as of this writing) are $16.26 per hour for the nurse and $9378.23 per hour for the footballer.
I might add that it is difficult to take a meme that includes the grammar error “saves lifes” seriously.
Now with the house note out of the way, this meme conveys a very nice platitude. Any occupation in the healthcare field is a noble and honorable vocation and football (soccer) is just entertainment. However, the footballer makes more because he generates more income for his employers than the nurse does.
If the healthcare worker was paid what the footballer makes, healthcare costs would go through the roof, but that is beside the point.
A point that is lost on many people, especially SJWs, is that people are paid exactly in proportion to their level of service, the value they bring to their employers or clients, and the degree of difficulty in replacing their labor.
There are few people in the world who have the physical and mental ability to play soccer at the professional level. Only 1% of the people who aspire to play any sport on the professional level ever make it. There are a lot of people who can and do become healthcare workers.
I might add that even in the healthcare field, it is harder to replace the doctor than it is to replace a CNA or a nurse.
My point is that we might value the healthcare worker more than the footballer, but that doesn’t mean they can be paid the same.
Professional football (soccer) generates billions in television revenues and the footballer is the product being sold. The footballer wouldn’t be paid over $9000 an hour if there weren’t a demand and a market for his skillset.
The irony of the situation is that the very people who complain about how much athletes and entertainers are paid are the very same people who watch the games, movies, and shows these entertainers and athletes are featured in and buy the products being advertised that feed the multibillion dollar coffers that these athletes and entertainers are paid from.
The SJWs target the pro athletes and entertainers because their compensation is an easy target to highlight the fallacy of income inequality.
It is a classic case of the green-eyed monster.
https://therationalram.blog/2020/01/26/the-green-eyed-monster/
I close this post with the following poem:
My Wage
“I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.
For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.”
-Jessie B. Rittenhouse
Read more https://www.happypublishing.com/blog/i-bargained-with-life/
-The Rational Ram
The Rational Ram 