How much money is too much money?
It's a question I've been pondering
recently, perhaps for the silliest of reasons. It's what's known as
the transfer season in world professional soccer leagues, when teams
can sell players to other teams. One of Loraine's favorite players
is a French guy named Antoine Greizmann, who had been playing for the
Spanish club Atletico Madrid the past few years. In fact, he's been
playing for them since spurning another big Spanish club, Barcelona,
in 2017, complete with a nationally televised TV special (ala LeBron
James) announcing for which team he would be playing.
Well, that was 2017. This year, he
decided that despite having three years left on the contract that he
signed in 2017 he wanted to move to Barcelona. So, they bought his
deal with Atletico for 120 million Euros, and then signed him to a
new contract worth 40 million Euros a season.
Just for a guy to play soccer for three
years almost a quarter of a billion Euros (almost 300 million
dollars) were involved.
Let's set aside the fact that in Europe
players can basically break their contracts at will and force a sale,
especially if they're highly paid. There are many things that are
different between Europe and the US, and how pro athletes honor
contracts is one of them. Instead, I would like to concentrate on
the obscene amounts of money involved, something that's common both
here and there. Antoine Greizmann stands to make 120 million Euro
while playing for Barcelona. I don't begrudge him that; if he can
get paid that much, it's his right. But what does he—or
anyone—need with that much money? There are only so many homes you
can buy, only so many cars you can purchase, and only so much bling
in the world. If you're an athlete getting paid 40 million Euro a
year or a hedge-fund manager in the US making $100 million a year, do
you really need that much money? And yes, I know you have to pay
taxes on that money, at least in Europe (in the US, if you're rich,
that's another story, but one we won't get into today), but even
after taxes Greizmann stands to pocket upward of 20 million Euro a
year.
If he were to spend that 20 million or
so Euro he has after taxes each year, he'd have to spend almost
55,000 Euro a day. That's like having enough money to buy two cars
AND two first class airline tickets around the world each and every
day. He makes as much money in one day as most people do in a year.
Does anyone really need that much money?
Once again, I'm not faulting him for
doing it; after all, he was able to make someone pay it to him. And
I'm just using him as an example; there are many people around the
planet who make as much (if not more) than he does. I just happen to
have spent a lot of time recently reading about his whole transfer
saga. That's why he's my example. But you have to wonder if any
single person is worth that much money, so matter what their skills
or their talents or who their father or mother was. Think of the
good around the planet that could be done with even a fraction of
that 40 million Euro a year. Think of the people that could be fed,
the babies that could be housed, the diseases that could be
prevented. Think of what some of that money could do in the fight
against climate change or developing clean energy.
Think of the good that could be done
anywhere, for any reason, with that money.
I'm never ever going to make 40 million
a year; in fact, the thought of that much money kind of blows the few
remaining working neurons in my brain. But I'd like to think that
that amount would be too much. If I ever made that money I would
take the small amount that I'd actually need to live comfortably and
travel comfortably, and give the rest to other, much more worthy
causes. For me, at least, there is a limit on how much money one
person needs.
There is a line where too much money is
just that--too much money. But then, I'm not a pro athlete or a
hedge-fund manager. I work in radio. Unlike Antoine Greizmann,
that's a problem I'll never have to worry about.
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