Things That Bother Other People That I'm Fine With
1. Talking On Cell Phones While Driving
Well I haven't gotten into an accident yet, and even if I do, how can you be sure that was from my cell phone? People get into accidents all the time. And what else am I supposed to do on my commute home? It now takes me upwards of 45 minutes to get home. It gets friggin' boring and now I get all of my calls out of the way. Why else have a cell phone?
2. Athletes Making Millions
I guess I'd rather that money being diverted to public servants and social workers, but if the 2 destination spots are rich old white owners and the players, I'm totally fine with the players getting paid. And why don't people complain as much about other under worked millionaires, like actors or John Rockefeller XV? Athletes are people too!!!
3. Reality Shows
Reality shows freakin' rock and I don't want to hear about how much they've dumbed down TV. You obviously must have watching Masterpiece Theatre while I was hooked on Alf and Mr. Belvedere. And they're only getting better. Wife Swap? Ingenious. The White Rapper's Show (Thank you EMHO)? Utter brilliance (and, btw, John Brown should have won. Although Car Wars was a pretty lame finale...).
4. Babies crying on planes
Any annoyance I start to feel is completely overwhelmed by how sorry I feel for the parents. I cannot imagine anything worse than being stuck on a plane with a baby I can't calm down.
Labels: Random Rankings
posted by chuckdaddy2000 at 9:43 am
9 Comments:
1. Chances are you're more alert than most drivers using cell phones. I remember once merging onto I-5 behind some teenage girl on her cell phone - she cut right in front of another car, causin him to swerve into the next lane, narrowly avoiding a several-car pile up. She never even noticed. Oh yeah, I was annoyed.
2. 100% agree. Players make what the market pays, baby.
3. Speak the truth, brotherman. TV could be used as a tool for social enrighment, but then people wouldn't watch it. Reality TV is simply an acknowledgment of this.
4. As a new parent, thank you.
CDX--get a headset please!
Babies on planes SUCK. I know I'm being impatient and intolerant to the next generation, but for those of us hoping to catch up on our reading or nap time, seeing that you are seated feet away from a young'in raises the blood pressure a few notches. And it's not just the screaming that sucks it's the parents trying to entertain the little one. I was on a flight last week where the parents, seated in the row in front of me, pulled out a portable DVD player so the fruit of thier loins could watch Dora the Explorer with no headphones. UGH. When electronic equipment was not allowed on the plane, I got to witness a rip roaring rendition of Itsy Bitsy Spider on repeat. Of course this is an isolated case and not all babies screech on planes, some are even quite pleasant, but it SUCKED. Don't even get me started on babies/children in first class.
1. I don't support a ban on cell phones, but why can't people talk and drive at the same time? These same individuals can't walk and chew gum simultaneously either I imagine....
2. What about obscene CEO pay? I don't understand why genetic freaks get paid more for moving a leather ball around the grid-iron or court. I blame the 'fans' who financially support the system...
3. When is America's Skankiest Whore coming back on?
4. Why can't screaming babies just be ejected from the plane? We could give them little baby parachutes - when they land some nice farmer can mail them to their destination. Why should the rest of us suffer becuase their parents can't control their rug rat? At least muzzle the damn thing!
The economics of professional athletics is really weird, and too jiggered I think to just say "they get what the market will bear." If the professional athletic agent hadn't come along, there aren't many athletes who wouldn't have been ecstatic to play a game for, say, $150,000 a year.
What gets me, though, is this: Was Michael Jordan really that much better than the worst player in the NBA? Answer: Of course he was. Next Question: was that disparity significant, or even perceptable, relative to the difference in ability between the worst player and the NBA and you? Answer: not really. At any kind of realistic human scale, you are just looking at two people who are insanely good at a very specialized task.
So, the disparity of income AMONG athletes seems pretty extreme. It's much like the disparity of income among chief corporate executives, with the redeeming factor that in the case of athletes there is at least SOME tie to ability.
On the cellphone topic -- if I were ever to get a cell phone, it would only be for use while driving. (Why else would you want one?) But, I don't like seeing them used on the city streets, as I have recently in a handful of near-death experiences. Rural and open freeway driving only, please!
Damn, miguelito got to the CEO topic while I was still pontificating....
What about reality shows about athlete babies talking on phones?
Michael5000-
Another factor is that teams make money not based on how good players are, but on revenue from TV and people coming to games. And people are way way way more likely to come to a game a superstar is in.
Teams would actually pay NBA star players even more disproportionally, but they have maximum contracts. Before that, teams were leaning towards playing a star a crazy amount of money and almost everybody else minimum amounts.
Alright I'll stop now (but it's so hard when I actually get a chance to talk about the NBA again...)
CDX,
Well, sure. But that just warps the economics of the whole thing yet further.
I think the strongest argument against the star system in professional athletics is the extent to which, because it is so capital-intensive, it drives franchises onto public welfare. Like a 1935 Californian's nightmare stereotype of an Okie, the pro teams lurch from city to city in search of the biggest handout. And they usually get it, and a big wet kiss from the mayor as well.
I've got no problems in principle with the gate and television advertising pushing athletes' wages way up, although really I don't think the system does anybody (except corporate shareholders) any favors. (The biggest victim is of course professional basketball, which used to be kind of a fun game to watch.) But the "build us a stadium, or else" bullshit is ridiculous, and it's kind of grotesque how cities roll over on their backs and bankrupt themselves puttting up some ostentatious megastadium rather than allowing the tall superstars play to go play basketball elsewhere.
I'm not crazy about babys on planes, either.
Reality TV is fine.
By the way, ChuckDaddy, you're lookin' good in your new pic!
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