Dear John: About your idea of paying student athletes: What a misguided bunch of hokum!
How much are you planning to pay the wrestling team? Girls field hockey?
They don’t seem to be suffering from lower grade point averages due to three-a-day workouts. If they want to get paid, let them go to MLB, NBA, NHL or NFL.
Otherwise, they can pretend to get an education. I am so tired of people complaining about how much money these schools make without paying their players. The real issue is how much money these schools make while increasing tuition for the common student.
When a college is profiting due to a successful basketball program or whatnot, tuition should not be allowed to go up, too; in fact, it should be reduced.
Cry me a river for these pampered athletes and go talk to the real student athletes on the swim team or lacrosse team.
Tired of the same old argument. J.F.
Dear J.F. You are either a parent with kids in college or a guy who hasn’t yet paid off his student loans.
By an extension of our argument, why should anyone be paid for anything? People these days should be happy to go into an office simply because they get the benefit of, say, a roof over their heads and maybe medical benefits.
The fact is, we live in a capitalist society. And colleges are making lots of money from this free labor they have. They should kick some back to the student-athletes who make it happen.
And, by the way, I think wrestlers should get $20 an hour and girls field hockey players $25. But that’s only because I like girls better.
Dear John: Your recent column on the NCAA and student-athletes is where I was on this issue one year ago.
I am now convinced that the answer to this problem has been solved by baseball and hockey. The NBA and the NFL have developed a “farm team” system. They have effectively socialized risk and privatized profits through using colleges as student- and taxpayer-funded farm teams. Considering that the purpose of modern-day football and basketball at the college and pro levels is really about betting (perhaps a trillion-dollar industry), the risk should be borne by the teams. Bring back the student-athelete at the college level, which really disappeared in the 1970s. W.G.
Dear W.G. Or, the pro teams and the colleges could split the costs.
Both are getting something out of the current NCAA system. Let them all foot the bill.
I’m not opposed to your idea. Thanks for writing.
Dear John, I read your column every Sunday and the recent letter from K.K. rang a familiar note.
At age 57, I lost my mortgage business because of the housing meltdown. It wasn’t big, just three others and me, but I made a better-than-average living.
I went from making over $100,000 one year to $19,000 the next to zero the next. Talk about misery.
But I found the courage to reinvent myself. Now, at age 61, I enjoy being an entrepreneur, public speaker, trainer and author.
People our age need to start thinking outside the box. K.K.’s friend was waiting seven years to find a job when he could have been building something of his own.
Like I say, this is still America and it is still the land of opportunity. All you have to do is get off your butt and go after it — your age should not be a factor, young or old. Chris Vaca, author of “Age Should Never Be an Excuse for Not Succeeding” and others.
Dear Chris: I agree with you totally. People make their own opportunities. And good luck never happened to anyone sitting at home watching TV — except maybe to sitcom writers in training.
And the older I get the more I agree with your philosophy.
But the reality of the situation is this: Over the last few years, many millions of Americans have been sabotaged by this economy. And most new businesses require some sort of capital to start. We can’t all put on a suit and start talking for a living. Some people have needed to pull back, control their costs and exist — rather than expand.