Who is Vernon Wells?

I know who Donald Trump is. Based on those figures, Vernon will have to learn how to put that money to work by getting others to do the thinking for him if he is ever to have as much money at his disposal as "the Donald" does.

So, the real question for me then becomes, how does one measure the value of a person to our society? If life is measured by the money at one's disposal, how "fair" is life? Can anyone become a "Donald" or a "Vernon"? Is it the luck of the genetic or environmental draw? Or is it lots of hard work with much more effort put in than anyone else is interested in doing?

Turn the clock back in spectator sports to the 1950's for instance. Is society better served today by spectator sports? Or is it one of the reasons why the Conservative Government decided to give a tax rebate of $500 per year to parents for each child they register in organized sporting activities so that they may, as a consequence, burn off some of that fat from eating fast food?

http://www.sportmatters.ca/Groups/News%20and%20SMG%20Releases%200506/10%20Oct06/Canwest-Oct_27-Sweat%20required%20for%20child%20fitness%20tax%20credit.htm

I agree Ben but lets go a little further. What does say, Darren Entwistle of Telusdo for his rumored 6 mil a year plus? As Owl says, you get the underlings to do the work. Why should we pay higher phone bills to support this guy's inactivity? Nobody in sports or otherwise is worth that kind of money. Lets look at wages right across the board. The bankers, CNR executives, BC ferries CEO and yes even Northern Health salaries. It's time to get real with some of these salaries.

Quite simply put the market dictates what compensation one earns. Not many people can play a sport exceptionly well,run a company or perform brain surgery. The masses however can do the day to day 'grunt' work. I agree the success of the CEO is dependant on the employee's, without competant leadership a company will fail and all employees will be unemployed. Unskilled low demand jobs should be paid less than those that have specialty skill's or the resposibilty of running multi billion dollar companies that provide reasonable paying job's to many thousands of people.

Maybe professional sports will become a thing where only the ultra rich go to games. They won't be getting my money anytime soon. I feel there is more entertainment in a Spuce King game than most professional events anyways. The best sports IMO where you pay to play, are the ones that require engine oil.

I see they have my truck on the head banner. Much better allocation of dollars for entertainment with the country we live in.

My New Year's wish is that someone very rich and even more stupid comes along and offers me just 10% of that kind of money for spitting cud, kicking dirt on the umpire and scratching my b#*ls in public.

"Unskilled low demand jobs should be paid less than those that have specialty skill's or the resposibilty of running multi billion dollar companies that provide reasonable paying job's to many thousands of people."

That is the way the system is run. If this is what the consensus is, then why are people like Ben, and he may very well be in the majority, complaining? Is there something wrong with that "free enterpise" assumption?

Remember, the CEO who keeps the company profitable by increasing revenues while decreasing expenses through job replacement by automation and outsourcing will likely be compensated more than the one who stays the course and provides steady employment for loyal workers. I think that statement is unrealistic in our society. It would be a rare company that makes that last part a part of their "mission" statement and carries it out successfully.

When a mimimum wage earner flips some hamburgers and undercooks them, or does not wash his or her hands properly when touching the food we eat - basically does not follow the Foodsafe requirements - that individual could cause dozens and even hundreds of people to get food poisoning causing them to suffer physically as well as economically, and even causing them to die in extreme cases.

How often is a Vernon Wells put into a position whereby a poor job performance will cause such an impact on others? What reponsibility does a Vernon Wells have for the safety of the public?

What about the captain of the Ferry which sank off the coast of BC causing 2 deaths and countless of dollars damage to the ferry system and the economy of communities dependant on such a service?

Our economic system is not based on such a value system. Our system is simply based on a mixture of supply and demand plus "organizations" which provide some protection to either employees or employers, plus government incentives or penalties primarily intended to ensure that those who are doing jobs which carry a considerable degree of social responsibility, especially for public safety, are actually performing their jobs the way they ought to.

What is interesting is that such was never the case for those who are employers. More an more, employers are under the gun to ensure that due diligence is practiced throughout their business.

In my opinion, the "free marketplace" has to be tempered by other systems in order to come up with reasonable compensation for the responsibilities people have while they work.

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On an associated note:

I repeat once more part of waht you wrote:

"the resposibilty of running multi billion dollar companies that provide reasonable paying job's to many thousands of people."

I would prefer to say: "the responsibility of running multi-billion dollar companies that provide the highest standards of safety to many thousands of people while they work."

In my mind, that is a responsibility of some magnitude, especially important in Canada since we have very high worker fatality rates compared to other western industrialized countries as has come out in the news in the last few days.

Then again, I am sure that there are those on here who would say that there is insurance to take care of that. The worker's family will collect a million bucks. What's so bad about that?

Vernon is still on his old contract for the 2007 season. Furthermore, his salary is technicaly only $500,000 for the 2008 season and 1.5 million for the 2009 season. I suppose there is nothing wrong with Ben averaging it though for the sake of your argument which in reality has nothing to do with Vernon and is sports contracts in general.

As far as the Bluejays go though it is a wise contract. They keep their allstar centerfielder and have money to spend on another pitcher for what they see as a chance to win big over the next couple years. Then likely dump him to the Yankees or Redsox when the endloaded contract is in the big years.

Smooth

You don’t get what your worth, you get what you negotiate.
Happy New Year to all.

So simply stated FE and so very true.

It is those who have good negotiation skills, whether formal or informal, and have a realistic understanding what the "market" will bear in their case that do well financially.

You may have the ability to be the best anything in the world, but unless you can sell others on that idea, you will not be that, other than in your own eyes and a few around you who can recognized the talent or skill. In fact, there are many in the world who make their living finding such talent and bringing it forward when it would otherwise have gone unnoticed.

http://ezinearticles.com/?You-Dont-Get-What-You-Deserve,-You-Get-What-You-Negotiate&id=115064

;-)

So the negotiator gets? 5%? ... 10%? ... for how many hours? ... for what hourly rate? ... and how many others does he/she negotiate for?