Why do footballers get paid more than doctors??

Original post by Moiraclaire

The laws of supply and demand.

There is a higher supply of doctors than good footballers, also greater demand for good footballers than doctors.

TOTALLY UNJUST :L footballers are unproductive and normally mentally subnormal - they make lots of little boys spend way too much time playing football when they should be focusing on their education - this makes me very angry.

Football is a multi billion pound industry because demand to watch football is high, demand for footballers is derived from the demand to watch footballers.

Footballers rationally choose the highest wage - nothing to do with 'sharing'.

DOCTORS - relatively high supply as thousands of medics graduate every year, relatively low demand as we need thousands of doctors to work in our hospital

a lovely basic economics lesson for all :L

There is a higher supply of doctors than footballers? Can be argued the opposite....look at how many leagues there are in every country...there are hundreds of thousands of footballers. A large factor in the pay of doctors is the fact that the government CANNOT afford to pay £150,000 a week to a doctor. Demand for doctors is ridiculously high, there is not a single moment when they aren't in need. Obviously supply and demand play some part, but you must be delusional if you think that the lower pay of doctors is nothing to do with the fact that the government has a tight budget. Why do you think private doctors can earn £1million a year? Surely demand for them is less than demand for public sector doctors?

I understand your point that demand for premier league football is high ---> wages are high, this is of course true. However it is also due to the fact that the government do not sufficient resources to actually sustain a £150k/week salary for doctors.

Congratulations on your UCL offer though :wink:

...mind if i pm you..?

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 24

cambo211

19

Original post by Extricated

There is a higher supply of doctors than footballers? Can be argued the opposite....look at how many leagues there are in every country...there are hundreds of thousands of footballers. A large factor in the pay of doctors is the fact that the government CANNOT afford to pay £150,000 a week to a doctor. Demand for doctors is ridiculously high, there is not a single moment when they aren't in need. Obviously supply and demand play some part, but you must be delusional if you think that the lower pay of doctors is nothing to do with the fact that the government has a tight budget. Why do you think private doctors can earn £1million a year? Surely demand for them is less than demand for public sector doctors?

I understand your point that demand for premier league football is high ---> wages are high, this is of course true. However it is also due to the fact that the government do not sufficient resources to actually sustain a £150k/week salary for doctors.

You think there aren't hundreds of thousands of doctors?

There are many, many more doctors than there are professional level footballers.

Reply 25

Original post by cambo211

You think there aren't hundreds of thousands of doctors?

There are many, many more doctors than there are professional level footballers.

Obviously there are. I was disputing the fact that he claimed that it was "nothing to do" with the fact that the government has a limited budget. I think my original post of "LOL at demand and supply" may have been a little exaggerated.

Reply 26

cambo211

19

Original post by Extricated

Obviously there are. I was disputing the fact that he claimed that it was "nothing to do" with the fact that the government has a limited budget. I think my original post of "LOL at demand and supply" may have been a little exaggerated.

If the government suddenly found a truckload of money they wouldn't boost the wages of doctors they'd put it into improved facilities/more doctors.

Why would they pay the doctors more when the doctors have very little choice of where to work? CR summed it all up pretty well on the first page.

Reply 27

Original post by cambo211

If the government suddenly found a truckload of money they wouldn't boost the wages of doctors they'd put it into improved facilities/more doctors.

Why would they pay the doctors more when the doctors have very little choice of where to work? CR summed it all up pretty well on the first page.

Train drivers have very little choice...yet their pay has increased exponentially over the last 10 years. 50k a year is quite common

Reply 28

tazarooni89

Original post by Moiraclaire

TOTALLY UNJUST :L footballers are unproductive and normally mentally subnormal - they make lots of little boys spend way too much time playing football when they should be focusing on their education - this makes me very angry.

Why "should" they be focusing on their education rather than football?
In my opinion, they "should" be focusing on whatever is going to bring them happiness and success in life.

Reply 29

kaosu_souzousha

15

Original post by Ayesha.Tabassam95

Hi. Im doing an my discursive essay on the above for english. Anyone have any ideas?? I would really appreciate it :smile:

Why Bill Gates is a billionaire and founders of unix are not?

High demand generates larger revenues.

Reply 30

MagicNMedicine

It is supply and demand, there is massively more demand for footballers (at the top level) that is facilitated by TV. People only want a doctor when they are ill, they won't subscribe to Sky Sports to get access to watch doctors at work, they won't pay money to watch doctors live in action. Footballers' salaries are so high because the TV companies pay enormous sums of money to get the rights to televise games, because they get huge audiences (high demand) and can sell advertising at expensive prices to advertiser because of those audiences. Also wealthy club owners compete against each other to try to sign the best players so they bid each other up for the talent.

With doctors it is a totally different environment, there isn't enough interest in what they do to sell TV rights or do endorsements for clothing and leisurewear, they aren't celebrities.

Reply 31

Rds_

because the UK is a football obsessed country where players are being portrayed as some sort of gods.

Reply 32

tazarooni89

Original post by Extricated

There is a higher supply of doctors than footballers? Can be argued the opposite....look at how many leagues there are in every country...there are hundreds of thousands of footballers.

Most of those footballers have don't have super high salaries though. In the lower leagues in England, average salaries are as low as around £50k. In other countries, it's much lower than that. The top leagues represent a tiny minority of footballers.

There is a low supply of footballers who are good enough to play for the top teams that have lots of money to give them. If Messi or Ronaldo quit their jobs, their clubs would have a very tough time replacing them. They wouldn't be able to just pick any footballer out of the hundreds of thousands you mentioned.
Whereas if I have an ordinary illness that I need to see my GP for, probably, any GP will do. Or if I need to see an orthopaedic consultant, any orthopaedic consultant will probably do. With doctors, there's a lot less need for "that doctor in particular".

It is also due to the fact that the government has no money and couldn't possibly afford to pay doctors that much anyway, but supply and demand plays its part as well.

Reply 33

Original post by tazarooni89

Most of those footballers have don't have super high salaries though. In the lower leagues in England, average salaries are as low as around £50k. In other countries, it's much lower than that. The top leagues represent a tiny minority of footballers.

There is a low supply of footballers who are good enough to play for the top teams that have lots of money to give them. If Messi or Ronaldo quit their jobs, their clubs would have a very tough time replacing them. They wouldn't be able to just pick any footballer out of the hundreds of thousands you mentioned.
Whereas if I have an ordinary illness that I need to see my GP for, probably, any GP will do. Or if I need to see an orthopaedic consultant, any orthopaedic consultant will probably do. With doctors, there's a lot less need for "that doctor in particular".

It is also due to the fact that the government has no money and couldn't possibly afford to pay doctors that much anyway, but supply and demand plays its part as well.

Yeah, I understand that supply and demand obviously plays its part. If you refer to my 3 previous posts, I've mentioned that about ~6 times :tongue:

Reply 34

tazarooni89

Original post by Extricated

Yeah, I understand that supply and demand obviously plays its part. If you refer to my 3 previous posts, I've mentioned that about ~6 times :tongue:

Sorry

Reply 35

Dreamweaver

10

Original post by Moiraclaire

The laws of supply and demand.

There is a higher supply of doctors than good footballers, also greater demand for good footballers than doctors.

TOTALLY UNJUST :L footballers are unproductive and normally mentally subnormal - they make lots of little boys spend way too much time playing football when they should be focusing on their education - this makes me very angry.

Football is a multi billion pound industry because demand to watch football is high, demand for footballers is derived from the demand to watch footballers.

Footballers rationally choose the highest wage - nothing to do with 'sharing'.

DOCTORS - relatively high supply as thousands of medics graduate every year, relatively low demand as we need thousands of doctors to work in our hospital

a lovely basic economics lesson for all :L

Demand to watch football was also proportionately high, relative to population size, 20 years ago yet football wages at that time were only a small percentage of what they are now. It's not that demand has exponentially increased over the last 20 years, it's the commercialisation of football itself as an industry and inflation of the economy that has lead to extremely high wages.

Reply 36

Moiraclaire

9

Original post by Extricated

There is a higher supply of doctors than footballers? Can be argued the opposite....look at how many leagues there are in every country...there are hundreds of thousands of footballers. A large factor in the pay of doctors is the fact that the government CANNOT afford to pay £150,000 a week to a doctor. Demand for doctors is ridiculously high, there is not a single moment when they aren't in need. Obviously supply and demand play some part, but you must be delusional if you think that the lower pay of doctors is nothing to do with the fact that the government has a tight budget. Why do you think private doctors can earn £1million a year? Surely demand for them is less than demand for public sector doctors?

I understand your point that demand for premier league football is high ---> wages are high, this is of course true. However it is also due to the fact that the government do not sufficient resources to actually sustain a £150k/week salary for doctors.

Congratulations on your UCL offer though :wink:

...mind if i pm you..?

Yes but in terms of REALLY REALLY good footballers there is low supply.
Yes government has a tight budget,

but the wage is still determined by supply and demand if the wage was £20,000, fewer qualified medics would be willing and able to supply there labour in terms of being a doctor (they might go private sector or abroad or become a surgeon etc) when the wage is £150,000 we ahve enough doctors who are willing and able to supply their labour as we need to deal with our country's various ailments....

If the wage was £150,000 per week, we would have too many doctors willing and able to supply their labour, so in order to for the market to reach equillibrium, and only enough doctors be willing and able to supply their labour as we need, government can cut the salary down to £150,000 per year.

DESPITE NEEDING TO MAKE CUTS - we would never cut teacher's salaries to £5,000 per year - be cause we wouldn't have enough teachers - same basic principle....

and yes of course you can pm me :smile:

SO HAPPY with UCL :smile:

Just waiting on Warwick (Tick, tock)

Reply 37

ddrrzzeerr