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Almost half of Australia's elite athletes 'earn below the poverty line' (www.sbs.com.au)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/australia@aussie.zone
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[–] 14 points 3 years ago (14 children)

I don't agree with people here not caring about this. Why should anyone earn below the poverty line?

If producing value is what gives you the right to live, then why do managers and manager's managers get so highly paid? Does that also mean that artists shouldn't get to live either unless they're doing graphic art for a company?

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  • [–] 14 points 3 years ago*

    You are right, but also this comes with the territory of doing what many people like to to and many would even do for free.

    It's the same with many other types of jobs that people do not strictly only for the money.

    Art is the same. People form bands and release music for fun, hence those who want to earn money there are undercut by those who just do it for fun. Only a few top artists can utilize massive economies of scale to actually make a decent living.

    Game developers are the software developers who earn the least, by far. Because everyone would prefer making a cool game over writing some b2b web app.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago* (10 children)

    Why don't I get paid for professionally posting on Lemmy? Why don't I get paid for professionally sitting on my couch?

    Just because you're doing something doesn't mean you should be paid for it.

    Athletes aren't paid very little because of being oppressed. They are paid very little because of their work being of very little (if any) worth.

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  • [–] -3 points 3 years ago (9 children)

    That can be extended to anything that isn't practical or useful, what I'm saying isn't that you should be paid for sitting on your couch specifically, what I'm saying is that you should have enough money to cover your needs even if your job is creating very abstract art, being a professional swimmer, or an artificial one like managing a manager.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (7 children)

    Who is responsible for providing for people who choose not to contribute?

    I'm not working away all day when I could be persuing a hobby and still getting paid just so someone else can persue a hobby and get paid

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    I'm not talking about luxuries or even a comfortable life, I just think that everyone should have enough to live under a roof and have enough to eat healthy every day.

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  • [+] 3 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (2 children)
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  • [–] -1 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I would think being an elite athlete is way beyond just a hobby.

    Running a few laps around the field every day, yes a hobby. Being faster or able to run farther than 95% of the Australian population, that's way beyond hobby levels.

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