by Anna Yarbrough

Created on: June 20, 2008   Last Updated: September 08, 2011

There is no disputing the fact that professional athletes work hard doing physical and mental training over a period of many years in order to practice and attain the level of skill necessary to become a professional athlete. One could never diminish the high level of commitment or the discipline it takes to attain the level of seasoned professional athlete. It is truly honorable.

Professional athletes are and deserve to be much admired for doing what it takes to achieve that level of skill and for the entertainment they provide. However, I believe that professional athletes are over-paid, as are actors, actresses, and some other entertainers.

It is also truly honorable to risk your life in the military, or the field of criminal justice providing protection for the rest of us from the unsavory behavior of others; to research, develop, and implement successful methods of instructing others in skills and knowledge deemed absolutely necessary for survival; to train and become accomplished in the art of saving a life or bringing one into the world; and even truly honorable to nurture children into independence. All of these are honorable endeavors worthy of esteem as well.

In other words, it is the disparity of earnings among professionals in a variety of fields that is baffling. Each of the professions referenced in the last paragraph, as well as many others, are of tremendous value to our culture. So, why is there such a vast difference between their earnings? While we're asking, why is it that some of our nation's officials earn what they do and receive an incredible number of perks as well?

We are, after all, all human beings born with special talents and abilities which we cultivate and utilize for the benefit of ourselves and others. If we equate the value of a person's work with their earnings for the job, does the disparity make any sense? Is this the result of manipulation of perception to create in some a celebrity status for which they earn outrageous amounts of money?

I still believe in the free enterprise system. Further, I also believe in the self- determination of human beings within this system. If, for example, one's interests find them in a field of lower income than someone else, does it really matter how much they are paid if they are truly happy and benefitting themselves and others in exactly the manner they chose? As long as the system remains uncorrupted, this is the highest economic environment of all.

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