Overpaid and over here
For entertaining us all so fabulously, Mr. Giggs is paid, well, fabulously. Over 75,000 pounds. Per week. Every fucking week. But, as he tells the Manchester Evening News, he thinks he's worth it:
"There is plenty of money in the game but the majority of the players deserve it. Perhaps 20 years ago they would not have got paid the money that they're getting now, but that is the way that football is. Good luck to them - the money is in the game, why not earn it while they have got the chance?"
The money is "in the game", is it? Presumably because its not 'in the pockets' of the poor deluded fools who choose to pay sixty quid a week to watch all this leather sphere kicking, spitting and diving. And another fifty so as to wear the same shirt - albeit a lot bigger - as Ryan.
But nobody could really begrudge 'Giggsy' his wealth, innit? The boy's done good. Lucky old Giggsy!
++UPDATE++ : commenters point out that Giggsy is the only wholesome man in soccer, and that Ashley Cole is far more loathsome and undeserving. Please substitute him above.
Nearly as good are those struggling politicians from the valleys, Neil and Glenys Kinnock. Remember them? Good honest, normal folk, the kind you'd have living next door.
Well, they've moved on a bit since then, see? The Kinnocks, Old Holborn discovered as he perused the Danish newspapers (huh?), have done rather well, look you, from their association with the European Gravy train. So far they've pocketed over 8 million quid in "pay and allowances" from their various marvelous efforts to better the world, whatever those were. Lucky old Kinnocks!
And then there's Jenson Button, who is reckoned to earn about 4 million quid this year for driving a car. A fast car, mind you, and quite tricky on a wet day.
But Jenson is paid for driving it. Not designing it, or building it, or tuning it: just fucking sitting in it, as it goes round and round in circles for a couple of hours, remembering to keep the wheels on the grey bit and away from the green bits, and to stop for petrol when the radio tells him to.
Because Jenson managed to do this today, and drove past a man with a flag before most of the other carbon-fibre bathtub jockeys, he's officially the world's best driver, and earn even more next year. Lucky Jensen!
So, remind CF, who is it we're jealous of - and simultaneously, quite angry with - for having far more money than they seem to deserve?
Oh, that's right, The Sunday Times' Leader reminds us, and the Telegraph joins in: The Bankers. Those Bastards.
_
Posts
10 comments:
Hmm...tricky, CF.
Giggs, Button and their ilk...they get paid what the market can stand and if someone wants to part with £60 to watch someone else kick a ball about, it's their choice. I choose not to, so that's fine. Just as long as I don't have to subsidise it in any way whatsoever.
The Kinnox...that's different. I'm paying for them whether I like it or not, so as far as I'm concerned, they can go feet first into an industrial meat grinder as I'm not even getting anything back in return that is of the slightest worth.
The bankers...here I'm divided. If they weren't bailed out with our money then it's a matter for them what bonuses they award themselves. If their banks are sound, why not?
I'm not sure I like the idea of the ones who helped get us into this mess getting rewarded as it's my money that's being used.
Quite how you reward the 'innocent' is a difficult matter, but identifying the 'guilty' and getting them out of the system would have been a start. We don't seem to have done that very well.
You not wrong. But very, very, very few 'Bankers' "helped get us into this mess". And they were helped by politicians, property magnates and the imbecile public.
If people want their pension pots to increase in value, and the 'City' to contribute to GDP to the extent it used to, and the income tax take to increase to the levels it used to be, then Bankers are necessary. And they too need to be paid 'what the market can stand', or they'll all fuck off and work for .. err ... Goldman Sachs. Or Nomura. Or any one of the thousands and thousands of banks that we don't have a stake in.
Contrary to what Gordon would have us believe, we only have a fungible financial stake in a few banks, not the moral stewardship of all of 'em.
_
But CF, footballer's have very short careers (or not as in Giggs' case) and really most are washed up by their mid-thirties. And besides, the sheer discipline the man has shown in his career entitle him to a bit of slack. You won't see him in a dentist's chair, staggering out of nightclubs at all hours, stubbing cigars out in the eye of a young apprentice, etc. Nope, he doesn't touch a drop of alcohol during the football season (Even though he gets a fair few champagne bottles from man-of-the match performances), he's never been caught out misbehaving by the tabloids, he does yoga regularly after training so that despite his advancing years he can still outperform other players nearly half his age. If only all footballers would be like Giggs. And that £75k is BS. He took a significant paycut a few years ago because he wanted to stay at Old Trafford.
Now the Kinnocks on the other hand...greedy snouts in the trough living off the public purse. Big difference between them and Giggs. He provides entertainment and the people pay to see him express his skills. Whereas the only entertaining thing the Kinnocks have ever done was fall into the sea during a photo-op and they get our money whether we want them to or not.
As for the Bankers, I've no problem with them earning obscene amounts of money on the proviso that when it goes tits up they're on their own. The only people we should have been bailing out were the British depositors in our banks. If the bankers think they coulsd lose anything, they'd be a bit more careful.
Ah. Oh. Fuck it.
So little do I know of the game that is football, and so little do I read the tabloid press, I was unaware that 'Giggsy' was the one wholesome boy in a world of overpaid tossers. I could've chosen anyone else, and they'd have better made the point, dammit.
But my underlying point still stands: why the fuck is it "obscene" that when banker takes home a million quid and yet absolutely fine for a footballer in his 20's, or a racing driver?
As far as I am concerened Its only obscene for Bankers to pay themselves huge bonuses when their Banks have failed and been bailed out by the Tax Payer. And thats the point about Bankers which most people are offended with.
Footballers are paid by the Private sector so Im not concerned about them. On the other hand if you had chosen to illustrate your point with Ashley Cole instaed of model professional Ryan Giggs then you may have garnered more sympathy. Both him and his wife are almost as odious as The Kinnocks.
"Bankers" is just a bit of old class war rhetoric - like "toffs" - dog-whistle politics.
Since we the public now own some of the banks, we want rid of them at the best price. That means in football terms 1st division players, and if that means bonuses, so what. I don't want to own a Bank or Building Society that operates to political objectives. Thats the same as Bill Clinton's "Fairness in Lending Act" which was the root cause of "sub-prime" lending. Lend to poor people who aren't able to pay back, or you are a racist.
What any one earns in the private sector is their business not mine. But those Kinnocks are utterly utterly vile parasites on the public purse. But then they don't get "bonuses" do they. Just an obscene salary, and expenses.
.. oh and, Mandie - commenting above - put yer top back on, girl. You'll catch your death..
Don't spoil the fun CF!
Don't spoil the fun CF!
Re: Jenson Button - his overpayment is debatable. To paraphrase Nigel Mansell (former co-worker), 'If you have a bad day at work you come home, pour a large one and kick the cat. If I have a bad day I hit a concrete wall at 200mph.' Reward vs risk, surely.
Post a Comment