coco_canuck wrote:UK, you really have to learn to stop while you're behind.
ukcanuck wrote:
It bothers me that money has it own justification and hard work has none.
As much as I hate to level either or distinctions, this is either intellectually dishonest, or you're blinded by your hypocrisy.
you may hate to level the accusations but you aren't above using intellectual dishonesty yourself it seems.
This is precisely why I and others laugh at your blindly partisan posts.
The self appointed spokesperson of the majority view as if it makes your position stronger and mine weaker, that’s very good, I admit, but its a fallacy, and it a cheap trick, we don't know what anyone else is thinking let alone whether there are more or less people who agree with either you or me, its completely irrelevant and raises the question whether you are the kettle or the pot?
Your fallacious statement completely ignores a number of important factors, but mostly two things.
First of all it isn’t my statement but a response to a question posed earlier in the debate about why should Billionaires profits be more acceptable than millionaires salaries. And I don’t agree with the sentiment which is why I said it depresses me.
1. You're suggesting hard work and money are mutually exclusive, which is pure bullshit.
That's a simplistic interpretation of what you believe I am suggesting, obviously I'm not objecting to the players getting paid well for their efforts so how could I put forward that the two concepts are mutually exclusive?
What I am suggesting is that some people seem to resent the players their share of the pie, focusing on the appearance that its a game that they play while completely ignoring the owner in the background making much more playing their own monopoly game.
A game that affects us all, is immoral on may levels and yet seems to need no justification, because as it was put forward by another poster here earlier...capital is its own justification.
2. You're ignoring the natural talents and good fortune that generally comes with making significant money. Most billionaire owners were in the position to accumulate their wealth based on at least one of these factors, and often in combination: were born into fairly wealthy families, had good fortune with a business move or promotion, or posses extraordinary intelligence. Most NHL players were born with great athletic ability and natural talent for hockey, and many were born into good families that spent a ton of money, energy and time into helping their son to become the best player possible.
Obviously, there are those on both sides that accumulated their wealth, or made the NHL, mostly on their own with hard work and determination, without extraordinary intelligence or athletic ability, but that's generally a small minority.
So, as you should be able to plainly see, billionaire owners and star athletes share similar good fortune in order to get to where they are. There aren't THAT many billionaires around the world, the same way there aren't THAT many millionaire athletes across the world.
Yes, yes, both actors on this stage were lucky and have characteristics that enable them to be relatively successful in their lives and that’s why they find themselves doing what they are doing. However, the opportunity and path to pro sports is open to anyone regardless of class or stature, while the path to the boardroom and key to the executive washroom is far from open.
Some playing field are slanted and as crooked as a bent stick and have nothing to do with luck or intelligence...Ask George Bush Jr former owner of the Texas Rangers how he got there and he's probably stupid enough to tell you daddy had something to do with it.
"But thats just one example!" I can hear the peanut gallery cry, well yes that’s true…
But then there is the William Wadsworth Wirtz clan who are liquor distributors who got their start in Chicago real estate in the 1920s nudge nudge wink wink.
Or Jeremy Jacobs in Boston who can't walk the streets of Boston without security and whose family also built their empire in the early part of the last century.
Or the Molson family whose business interests date back to the 1790s ...(I wonder if the Wirtz and Molsons knew each other during prohibition?)
Even Mike illitch who I admit seems to have worked his way for every penny of his fortune and most closely resembles the picture you paint of the hardworking fortunate intelligent entrepreneur, is hardly the poster boy of the rags to riches story...
Anyway I am getting carried away, the comment to which you and the others (dogsalmon apparently) are laughing at me over, was a lament over the apparent blindness by some that the owners got there in part by a dishonest and biased system that maybe once was free, but now is dominated by corporate monopolies and crony capitalism. Maybe you think that’s too black and white, but I know I am not the only one who thinks the system sucks.