Discussions
Do celebrities deserve their high incomes?
Posted by NT77 • 8/17/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: Celebrities, fame, income
While I can appreciate that celebrities and sports figures provide us with entertainment, I believe that their pay is far too high considering the contribution that they make. I blame this on our society and its misguided values. I feel that if we are to place a great value and a high degree of admiration on someone, it should be on someone that we rely on to survive, such as the medical professionals that we depend on to save the life of a loved one in an emergency, or the law enforcement officers on whom we depend to keep our families safe, or the teachers who we count on to educate our children, or the military personnel who we rely on to preserve our freedoms. Even the guy who pushes the shopping carts from the parking lot to the entrance of the supermarket does more to make our lives easier than do celebrities.
What are your opinions on this?
User Comments
-
I wish I was a celebrity -
Celebrities earn the amount of money that they do because they have "fans" who idolize them as "heroes" and "heroines". These fans attend the events celebrities star in, and they purchase the products hawked by their affiliated sponsors, etc. Celebrity worship fuels huge multi-billion dollar industries that employ many people all over the world, and keep many shareholders clipping those coupons and collecting those dividends.
Have you considered how many people would become unemployed if these celebrities were paid at lower levels, and the industries their popularity fuels made lower profits?
The way I see it, it doesn't matter what I think. These industries are not going to disappear any time soon. IMO the old saying: the masses are asses holds true. Because unless or until that pattern of fan behavior, which also includes worshiping celebrity athletes falls out of popularity, and the associated financial empires and industries fade into the dust, the income levels the celebrities achieve are not going to change no matter what my opinion may be. It all comes down to the economics of supply and demand ie. giving the masses what they want. -
Do they deserve their high incomes??? Try.....NO!!!!!! Like I need a larger font size to stress this point! -
I'd like to be Über-rich ☺ like a celebrity, but not from being a celebrity. Celebrities may make a lot of money, and you can argue whether its worth it or not, but it's usually short-lived and their egos tend to make them pretend to be important celebrities the rest of their life and most usually are not that rich or even penniless when they die (or go bankrupt) and start over in another field.
Here's a WSJ article about celebrity baseball heroes
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203547904574279891736968048.html
Some of today’s stars make six figures in a week. But rich at 30 isn’t rich for life. Highly paid athletes often wind up broke, the victims of bad investments, high rolling, greedy entourages, lawsuits and divorce settlements. Hall of Fame-derived money is a rock-solid annuity.-
QUOTE - "you can argue whether its worth it or not"
I can. People at McDonalds work harder than actors LOL. What about sweat shops and child labor. THOSE people are worth it....not the celebrities who wear the clothing those people make.
I dunno I could argue about inequality and all that til I'm blue in the face. Won't change anything.
-
-
Do they "deserve it" ? No. Do they have a right to make that much money? YES. THEY DO.
But I'm not going to rag on you, as you're a teenager, and idealistic.-
(But I'm not going to rag on you, as you're a teenager, and idealistic) Sorry, I think I have you mixed up with someone else, scratch that part
-
It's been many, many years since I've been called a teenager (but there was no offense taken).
I'm not blaming the celebrities and I'm not denying their right to make the money. If I could do the same, I would. I'm blaming the masses for being shallow in their obsession with the rich and famous.
Let the celebrities not show up for work for a year, and life would go on as normal. Let the garbage collectors not show up for one month and watch what happens. -
Can I get an AMEN, NT77!!!
-
-
If a person generates that much money, they deserve it. As a writer I hope to one day sell screen plays or have a successful book series. If I sell hundreds of thousands of books for a publish (like some successful writers do) I think I'd deserve a chunk of the cash. -
No. They don't even deserve to be celebrities.-
LOL!!!!! True to a certain degree!! But its US, the regular folk that make them that way.
-
exactly
-
-
I guess it is market value. But not any market I've ever been to! -
hell no they don't deserve the amount of money they receive! i think the poor retail slaves and the waitresses/waiters of the world deserve a celebrity income. celebrities however, deserve minimum wage at best. i will make an exception with this opinion for those who actually earn their living, such as writers, journalists, and some artists. famous actors and actresses (and most "rock/pop stars"), they don't deserve diddly poo.-
Exactly what I posted above. We're on the same wavelength.
-
-
Every single one of you wouldn't complain if you were in their shoes.
Jealousy is an ugly color.-
Every single one of you wouldn't complain if you were in their shoes. Jealousy is an ugly color.
I'll call you that opinion ie. broad and sweeping generalization not backed by fact. You aren't a mindreader and they don't even exist. But if they did and if you were capable of reading minds, then you could verify that I'm not jealous, and I wouldn't change places with a single one of these celebrities. I love the life I'm living now. -
TT you have been on my blocked list for a while now. So I don't know what you are saying
-
I wouldn't choose to be in their shoes. However if I should happen to win a lottery and become rich some day, I'd be as broke as I am now in a flash. But there would be a lot of people who end up much better off because of my winnings!
I could never be jealous of shallow, materialistic, foo-foo's LOL. I drive an old paid off car, live in a cheap 1 bdrm apartment, etc. But a lot of my money supports people in a country that's much worse of than we are. -
not @dbowles
@everyone else
I don't block anyone at all. I'm a self confident person. I don't allow others to trigger my emotions by giving away my power, so and I find it amusing that others do. More amusing still is members who announce they have blocked another member, as if I care, or as if anyone else does. ... LMAO
P.S. As my comment does not violate the community guidelines for forum posting or the BC TOS I don't expect to see it deleted. However, if it does disappear then I will know who the -
poor as i am, i wouldn't in a million years wish to be anything like the celebrities. i do not want their money. with money comes violence and with violence comes death.
-
DB-I respect everyone's right to live as they choose. But I've always preferred a simple, hermetic kind of life. We're all different. But I couldn't imagine myself being happy as a public figure.
-
"Every single one of you wouldn't complain if you were in their shoes.
Jealousy is an ugly color."
Jealousy is a feeling of resentment because of another's success, advantage, etc. I don't believe that this is so much a case of resentment. I said that I don't blame the celebrities, and I've already admitted that if I could be rich in the same way, I would. However I certainly wouldn't feel that I deserved such an income, and I think that's what the discussion is about. There are plenty of others out there who are far more deserving.
By the way, jealousy may be ugly but green is a pretty color. -
So is blue -
Who says we're jealous of them? I wouldn't allow myself to be put in their shoes if someone put a gun to my head, and if I ever did fall into a large sum of cash, I would have most of it allocated to charities to help needy families. (In other words, I wouldn't keep the money).
-
-
Who "Deserves" it and who doesn't? Is there is rule book somewhere?
You will get what you want, provided you have enough desire and appetite for it
I would also say, it's how you are wired, internally and by your particular circumstances -
Do they deserve it? YES because we as a population of fans put them on that pedestal of fame. We demand to see them where ever they go, we don't allow them to have normal lives, we consistently push them for more information and demand more from them. Fame comes with cost to both us as fans and them as celebrities. -
I think the word "deserve" is overused to the point of ridiculousness in our society. People earn what other people are willing to pay them, because it's worthwhile to those other people for whatever reason. -
hmmmmm-
Holly .. I am beginning to get your point ;-)
-
Don't worry, Tsu. A lot of people feel like that in the beginning, but it passes very quickly and, to one degree or another, you end up paying for it.
-
Hint: If someone asks "what's the best way to clear a misunderstanding?" I would say: Just keep doing whatever you are doing
-
-
no
-
celebrities with TALENT deserve their high incomes -
They are paid insane amounts because they can draw millions of consumer dollars to products, whether it be the productions they are a part of, or the advertising spots that fund their productions. As long as they can draw an audience companies will pay for their time. It doesn't matter if they act like gods or divas. The salaries they are paid is only a percentage of what the companies make in return. That's why people put up with celebrities, and that's why it seems that sometimes companies will bow down to them.
But, what people don't understand is that, in reality, celebrities are expendible. A celebrity will find themselves in the unemployment line as soon as they aren't profitable. There's no loyalty to them from companies. As soon as you can't turn a profit, you aren't worth a dime.-
There is also the point though that their high salaries also drive up costs for movie theaters, who employ people at increasingly low wages, and becomes unaffordable for movie goers of regular incomes to go see on a regular basis.
We all like seeing movies, but no one likes paying for their ticket and popcorn with their first born child. Those high costs are a direct result of the enormous salaries the actors demand. (The producers of the movies must make up the costs of the movie, and so charge exorbitant rates for the movies they sell to theaters, and so the theater has to raise their prices to accommodate the high prices for a reel of film). -
Salaries demanded by actors does not always mean a reciprocated profit by the studio. I worked for a movie theater long long ago and the movies we thought would garner the most traffic were devoted more theatres and timeslots regardless of what the actors were being paid. Many high budget floppers were only given 1 theatre and not very many time slots. Movie theatres still have matinee prices which are still affordable.
Also, the cost of concessions at the movie theatre is in no way related to the contractual agreements with studios. Studios make 100% of their money from theatres from the gate. Theatres make 90% of their money from concessions. The rising price of concessions had more to do with inflation and the theatres themselves trying to get more profit.
In short, theatres make no money off a customer actually sitting in the movie theater. They only make money off of you buying popcorn and candy.
-
-
There are lots of "celebrities" who have made millions and most of that money have gone to record companies , agents ,leechers etc ,they have signed a "bad" contact for example and havenot earned much themself , If lots of people earn massive ammounts of money from them,surely they are entitled to a peace of it themself. -
I agree with the OP in this - our priorities are completely backwards.
I would rather see teachers, day care providers, laborers, scientists and other hard working highly contributory folks earning higher wages than they currently do, and celebrities and pro-athletes earning much smaller wages.
After all, they're getting paid to play pretend and play sports games.-
But saying "our priorities" is kind of meaningless, isn't it? It isn't as if the same guy with the same resources is sitting down and saying, "Okay, I think I'll give the actor $10 million and the teacher $30,000."
The significant differences are myriad, starting with the fact that the celebrity, the football player, and most other highly paid people generate revenues that cover their paychecks and generate a hefty profit on top of it. Teachers, firemen, policemen, etc. perform much more valuable services, but don't generate a dime toward covering their own salaries, which means that money has to be scraped together from somewhere.
There is also the matter of reach. The most recent Harry Potter movie grossed $22 million from the midnight preview alone. That means that, even estimating ticket prices quite high, 2.2 million people saw the movie within the first few hours after it was released. The average elementary school teacher, in contrast, serves about thirty students a year. Thus, the successful actor who gets fifty cents each from his "customers" makes a lot more money than the successful teacher who gets $1,000 from each of hers.
There are fewer than 2,000 players in the NFL. There are roughly 2.7 million elementary and middle school teachers.
-
-
Celebrities are not happy with their lives. It's a cliche but I think it's true. -
ONE OF THESE DAYS DECENT PEOPLE WILL WAKE UP AND PURGE THE MEDIA OF THESE PARASITES AND LEECHES.IT ALL STARTED WITH THAT WORD "SHOWBUSINESS" WHICH ENCOMPASSES EVERYTHING THAT IS TRIVIAL AND TALENTLESS-THE SUSAN BOYLES OF THIS WORLD GOADED ON BY THE GRINNING PECKENESE SIMON COWELL- THE CASH MAGNET.
-
I'd like to see someone convince me that Dustin "Screech" Diamond isn't worth every penny he's earned.
Add Your Comment
Login to leave a message.
