Tiger Woods is first athlete to hit $1 Billion

I've always thought the paychecks of athletes and celebrities are disproportionate to the rest of reality. Obviously the guy is talented... but he's made so much money by being great at playing golf. Fucking golf. It's a luxury to begin with.

A kid in Malawi (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8257153.stm) built windmills out of garbage to power his village. Now he's trying to spread it to the rest of his country. I'm damn sure he won't be earning $1,000,000,000 anytime soon, but I would rate his contributions to society as far higher than Tiger Woods's.

I've always thought the paychecks of athletes and celebrities are disproportionate to the rest of reality. Obviously the guy is talented... but he's made so much money by being great at playing golf. Fucking golf. It's a luxury to begin with. A kid in Malawi (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8257153.stm) built windmills out of garbage to power his village. Now he's trying to spread it to the rest of his country. I'm damn sure he won't be earning $1,000,000,000 anytime soon, but I would rate his contributions to society as far higher than Tiger Woods's.

/agree.

A kid in Malawi (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8257153.stm) built windmills out of garbage to power his village. Now he's trying to spread it to the rest of his country. I'm damn sure he won't be earning $1,000,000,000 anytime soon, but I would rate his contributions to society as far higher than Tiger Woods's.

Hey, that's the kid from TED! I actually watched the video about him on youtube the other day. But I do agree. It is disproportionate to the rest of reality, but so has his play against the rest of the PGA league itself. He came in around what, '97 and has dominated since? Golf already has a huge money base behind it obviously and dominating a sport almost singlehandedly deserves some credit. Most of his money has come from sponsorships too, why not blame the sponsors? I don't see how Tiger Woods is the bad guy by being excellent at golf and getting paid out the ass to do so.

Not only that, Tiger is a philanthropist he donates tons of time and money towards causes that he doesn't even have to give one shit about. What have other athletes donated?

I agree wholeheartedly with Grav and I'm a sports fanatic. It saddens me how much money athletes, actors, singers, etc earn because of their entertainment value. That's all it is. They are entertaining the masses for a short period of time and they get paid millions, or even billions in Tiger Wood's case.

IMO, researchers and scientists should make athlete's wages. Or this kid who built windmills out of trash. Individuals furthering the advancement of society and our species as a whole are grossly underrated.

It's just the standard for today's society. If you have the ability to reach the masses, you will get paid.

IMO, researchers and scientists should make athlete's wages. Or this kid who built windmills out of trash. Individuals furthering the advancement of society and our species as a whole are grossly underrated.

I completely agree, but that's now how things work. Who do you suggest pay them the athletes wages to the researchers in a hypothetical situation?

Instead of paying the researchers and scientists the wages, why not pay the people who make the actual discoveries? You could research something specfically your entire life and come up with nothing. I'm sure there are thousands that have been through this dilemma, or only ones that have come up with short answers or discoveries. Then what? You've paid millions upon millions of dollars to people that haven't done anything with it? Then there is a new problem.

Perhaps not the exact amount of athlete's wages.

My point was people that are immensely valuable to our species are incredibly underrated. You know what I meant, hoser.

I'd like to clarify, I don't have a problem with Tiger Woods or any other overpaid entertainer. They're not the ones to blame. I just think it's stupid in general.