For the past few weeks, there have been press releases about Jazz players signing new contracts for hundreds of millions of dollars. Yes, hundreds of millions of dollars over very short periods of time. It has always bothered me that the inequity of value of a basketball player compared to, let’s say, a teacher, is astronomical.
I’ve heard the flimsy rationale that pro sports players boost the economy. I guess it’s true if you consider team owners “the economy.” Everyone else, from vendors to restaurant workers, just make the same lousy pay.
Going back to teachers, what profession does more for the economy than teachers? They are the producers of an educated society, for crying out loud. Teachers provide the education that has the potential to be a societal equalizer.
Can basketball players do that? These grossly over inflated salaries that the Jazz players are negotiating are even more despicable now, in a pandemic year, when so many are suffering and not able to earn even livable wages. These salaries have spun wildly out of the realm of commensurate pay and I’m sick of it. Let’s stop this madness and create a system where less money goes to individuals and more goes everyone, including teachers.
Laura Grzymkowski, Cottonwood Heights
