Helping us learn
...rched many other sports economics topics, "worth" is a value laden concept. Just because the Atlanta Braves will pay more to a pitcher than a person who rather it be his skills or her skills are more useful to society as a nurse or fireman doesn’t mean it’s the correct thing to do. It simply means that the Braves owners believes the presence on the team will translate into an additional $14.75 million (or more) through increased ticket sales, TV viewers, merchandise sales and team victories. If the owners didn't think they'd get their money's worth out of pro athletes, they would not pay such high salaries to them. Salaries, like all market prices, reflect the value to buyers of the last unit sold. So simply put, that means one additional nurse would not greatly increase the level of service provided by the country's sum total of nurses. However, one more pitcher of great caliber would have a huge impact on their revenue. In short, nurses are more abundant and easily interchangeable than are professional athletes. Again, salary is not a reflection of a nurse's value to society. In fact, the total contributions of the country's nurses far exceeds the total contributions of its athletes. And, if the U.S. had only 750...