Take Me Out (of) the Ball Game

Imagine how excited you might be to find the following employment ad in the classifieds:

Earn $2+ Million/Yr. Work Apr-Sept; poss OT in Oct.  Only req'd to work in good weather; no rainy days! Travel to major cities; stay at best hotels. Only expected to be productive 20%-30% of time; excellent performers (productive 30%-35%) earn much more. Random drug-testing conducted; not taken seriously though (should not impact career earning capacity).  Add'l income potential fm endorsements, TV and personal appearances, product sales.

Yes, it's time again for the "Boys of Summer."  According to the MLB Players Association, the average major league player's salary was $2,996,106 in 2009.  That's a pretty good deal for just one fellow, considering for the same amount of money we would have to employ:

• More than 60 police patrol officers, or 72 fire fighters, and those people would expect to work round-the-clock to protect the rest of us, rain or shine.
• 58 elementary school teachers, or 28 college professors, who would force our economy to grow by making our kids better educated and more capable of competing in a global economy.
• 54 chemists or 57 biologists, who would no doubt contribute to drastic drops in health care costs and make us have to live longer.
• 46 registered nurses or 33 nurse practitioners, and you know they would also do everything possible to keep us alive longer.
• 112 US Army sergeants, and those highly-motivated men and women would certainly insist on working 24/7/365 to keep our nation safe from all threats.

Well, you get the idea.  America is fortunate that we have these incredibly dedicated individuals who serve because of their conscience and the psychic and emotional benefits they receive from helping others.  However, we have got to balance the monetary compensation of our citizens with the relative contribution they make to the welfare of our country.

I'm encouraged by the efforts of people like Rob Peters (Standards of Trust), who is trying innovative ways to measure, qualitatively as well as quantitatively, what we produce and how we contribute, as individuals as well as organizations.  Think of advancements of the human endeavor if we could balance the money generated from an activity with the increased well-being (qualitatively) of all those who participated.

For the same amount of money we (American society) glady pay the "average" professional baseball player every year, we could pay the annual tuition at a public 4-year college for more than 400 students!  Who knows what those 400 kids could accomplish with a college education?

In a true capitalist society, how many people could even keep their jobs by being productive only 20%-30% of their times "at bat?"  I'd hate to end up in an ambulance with an EMT that was only successful 30% of the time, or in an operating room with a 20%-er surgeon.

We need to encourage American Society to shift from a position of:

• Ethics of Personal Advantage - "Self-interested, outcome-oriented, individualism."  (Mitchell & Scott) 

to

• Utilitarianism - "Promoting the greatest good for the greatest number" (John Stuart Mill)

What good will be served if a player makes $3 Million a year, but the rest of us can't afford to take our family to the ball park?