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Why don't we just tax footballers and other sportsmen?

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Seriously, some of them earn like, what, 100k a WEEK? Why not just tax the hell out of them? Most of them don't deserve it at all if you look at the way they play (I mean come on, they've been playing all their lives and yet a lot of their shots go way off target most of the times - some of it is SHOCKING).

Not just footballers, but other sportsmen to a lesser extent.

Yes, I know they are taxed, but I'm suggesting a massive tax.

*Edit*

FFS, people keep banging on about moving to other countries. I AM PROPOSING THAT EVERY COUNTRY DOES THIS. Or, if you'd prefer, imagine that we have just one country. Or, if you'd prefer, imagine a closed economy. Or, if you'd prefer, imagine a world tax.

*Edit 2*

Since some people are asking about numbers, I think it's fair to impose an 80% tax on footballers earning 100k/week. Even then, they're earning 20k a WEEK. That's more than a lot of people earn in a year still. I definitely support an 80% tax on footballers who still make 20k a week more than I do raising the fees.

If you can't live off of 20k a week, you have issues.

did you start this thread for the reason i think you've started this thread? :tongue:

Reply 41

Sabertooth

Original post by Swayum

No, but they also teach us about market inefficiencies and why taxes exist.

Clearly they teach you a lot:
"Their salaries are completely out of line with what they add to our lives relative to other professionals such as doctors."

:mmm:

Who determines their salaries? And do you even know what market inefficiency means?

Reply 42

Swayum

Original post by Tyrotoxism

did you start this thread for the reason i think you've started this thread? :tongue:

Ha! Partly :p:

Reply 43

Swayum

Original post by Sabertooth

Clearly they teach you a lot:
"Their salaries are completely out of line with what they add to our lives relative to other professionals such as doctors."

:mmm:

Who determines their salaries? And do you even know what market inefficiency means?

I don't know who determines their salaries, the club manager? The efficient way of deciding how much someone earns is deciding how much marginal product they add and giving them exactly that. Footballers do not add a marginal product of 100k a week. This is therefore an inefficiency and socially unfair, which is what governments are there to fix in an economics context.

Reply 44

Sabertooth

Original post by Swayum

On what basis do the club managers decide salaries?

What incentive does every single country in the world have to give the same low salaries exactly?

Original post by Swayum

and socially unfair, which is what governments are there to fix in an economics context.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 45

usainlightning

Original post by Swayum

You are just jealous. Remember there aren't that many elite sportsmen. A sportsman tax would not bring in a lot of money realtive to the spending cuts and tax rises currently being enacted.

Reply 46

Swayum

Original post by Sabertooth

On what basis do the club managers decide salaries?

Supply and demand, but you're just not getting my point because either you haven't studied enough economics or you're an idiot.

Reply 47

Miraclefish

The problem being thus: if you punish people for making too much money, they incentive isn't there, so they won't.

OK, those footballers get 100k a week, it's sick. But that money gets pumped back into the system through repairs to crashed Range Rover Sports, last-minute bookings of Travel Lodge rooms to 'meet' young female fans and massive garish faux-Georgian mansions.

Whether you tax it on income or on VAT and other sundries, the money goes back into the system. And it's far, far healthier for the economy if the money is going into shops and businesses and nightclub VIP rooms than straight into the government's coffers where it'll do naff all but appear on a balance sheet.

Reply 48

Overmars

Original post by Sabertooth

Do you want to explain why that's funny?

Reply 49

Swayum

Original post by usainlightning

You are just jealous. Remember there aren't that many elite sportsmen. A sportsman tax would not bring in a lot of money realtive to the spending cuts and tax rises currently being enacted.

I'm not jealous - but that has nothing to do with anything anyway.

I agree it wouldn't bring a lot of money in at all relative to cuts that the government's making, but it's better than no change I guess.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 50

Sabertooth

Original post by Swayum

Supply and demand, but you're just not getting my point because either you haven't studied enough economics or you're an idiot.

And how exactly is a price set by supply and demand inefficient?

Reply 51

should be revising

Original post by Swayum

I'm not saying it's their fault. I am saying our governments should recognise this and fix the bad economics - that's what governments are for - to fix market inefficiencies.

I agree they work very hard, but so does everyone else. Their salaries are completely out of line with what they add to our lives relative to other professionals such as doctors.

Yes, we all know that doctors/soldiers/nurses should be paid more, but blaming the high wages of professional sportsmen isn't the right answer. There will always be foreign billionaires who are more than happy to invest obscene amounts of money to fund these wages, so unless you can persuade them to use that money to raise the wages of 'more deserving people' then I really don't see how attacking the sports industry will help.
Sporting Taxes/Salary Caps won't help because sportsmen will simply move abroad to countries that don't have these policies, then we end up with no sport at all.

Reply 52

a_t

This is such *******s, I'd rather the footballers get the money than some **** on a board

50% is enough, we already have to pay higher wages to them compared to Spain, going after footballers is really not the answer to solving the recession, its just lazy knee jerk thinking

Reply 53

WhatTheFunk

Original post by Swayum

agents more than anything are the real pain, they go along well this payer is on x amount at your club, so i feel mine should be more cos you want me and i'm better

look at tevez at the moment and Kia Joorabchian, who whores him about when ever he wants a bit off money
than you get this billionaire taking over clubs offering silly amounts of money to buy players and wages to make sure they get them, other players see it and jump on, the top league in this country is killing football, clubs pick up massive amounts of debts, i think Alan sugar put it at £3.3 billion for 20 clubs

these a annoying part that some players get away with taxes, and they make more money for image rights that are not taxed, and stuff like that, than they earn a week, but we are the fools they turn up week in week out watching poor football as a west ham knowing they are on £30,000 a week average

being bias i'm at the point where west ham annoy me, if you want to tax footballers huge amount and players want to leave let them, i'll take a player who wants to be at the club and playing football for the right reasons and not money

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 54

Swayum

Original post by a_t

This is such *******s, I'd rather the footballers get the money than some **** on a board

What board? If you mean the government steals the money or whatever, then what I mean is a government that doesn't and spends the money well.

50% is enough, we already have to pay higher wages to them compared to Spain, going after footballers is really not the answer to solving the recession, its just lazy knee jerk thinking

Yawn, this has been said a million times on this thread and has nothing to do with my point.

Reply 55

wacky9873

Original post by Swayum

You sound quite jealous, and I don't think it's fair to tax them like that. What about businessmen who earn just as much as these footballers, should they also be taxed like this?

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 56

Sabertooth

Which part of the definition of market inefficiency does this meet? The lack of information? Or you just using the latest economic buzz word you know so you'll look smart?

Thought so, obviously a third year thing. :wink:

Don't worry, you'll get your answer to the thread once you get there, unless LSE's standards have dropped significantly.

Reply 57

Miraclefish

Original post by wacky9873

You sound quite jealous, and I don't think it's fair to tax them like that. What about businessmen who earn just as much as these footballer, should they also be taxed like this?

Ooh. This. Very much this.

I'm intriegued to see the OP's response.

Reply 58

Swayum

Original post by wacky9873

You sound quite jealous, and I don't think it's fair to tax them like that. What about businessmen who earn just as much as these footballer, should they also be taxed like this?

But that's the thing right - a businessman is selling stuff that people can use. Sure, he may be charging more than the manufacturing cost and other costs involved in production (such as an innovation cost), but it's nothing like a 100k a week salary!

What I'm really saying is the enjoyment that we get from a football match, which is the productivity a footballer adds, is not equal to the salary he gets. I would also agree that the productivity we get from the business man's good is less than the price we pay often, but it's a lot closer than in the case of the footballer's salary.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 59

TheMagicRat

As much as I like football, the players' wages are too high.

I think I read somewhere that Andrei Arshavin was surprised when he came here because even though his salary was more than he was receiving at Zenit St. Petersburg, he was actualy taking less home than he would've in Russia because of the taxes he pays. Don't quie know why I've said that, but it's worth pondering for a moment.