The $254 Million Dollar Man

Anyone that was watching television in the mid 1970's immediately knows what I'm talking about if I say "The Six Million Dollar Man." Actor Lee Majors played the role of astronaut Steve Austin who is "repaired" after a crash at a cost of $6 million. He was outfitted with several bionic parts making him superhuman.







Actually, Lee Majors was probably better known due to his being married to swimsuit pin-up Farrah Fawcett, one of the three original Charlie's Angels.

But now we have the $254 million man. Albert Pujols, former first baseman of the St. Louis Cardinals, signed a 10 year deal with the Los Angeles Angels that will pay him this ginormous amount. I understand that the pay rate of baseball superstars will always be an escalating amount. You have to figure that inflation probably is part of the reason. I mean, since January, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) has gone up a whopping 3.5% before seasonal adjustment. So I can see why Albert's salary needs to continue to increase...otherwise his spending power will deteriorate. Don't want that to happen.

$254 million. That's a lot of money. To play baseball. To hit, run, catch and throw. (I'm sure there is some other stuff but this is basically it) I know it is popular when trying to illustrate just how much a certain dollar amount is, is to say that if the amount was in dollar bills placed end to end it would reach all the way to that new planet they found 600 light years away. But you won't see me taking the worn out approach.

How can Albert make all that money? Let's just divide evenly by year...that's $25.4 million per year. If you make $20 per hour and work 40 hours a week and 52 weeks a year, how close would that be? Even with rounding, it's off by $25.4 million. OK, how about $500 per hour- 40 hrs a week, 52 weeks a year? Now the gap is down to $24.4 million. How about $2000 per hour? OK, now the gap is down to $20.2 million. This could take all day...let's go the other way. IF Albert worked 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year what would $25.4 million work out to be per hour? $12,212. Holy mackerel. You'd have to spend almost $70,000 a day to spend $25.4 million.

Don't get me wrong, I don't fault Albert for making a quarter of a billion dollars over the next decade. If someone offered me that much to do most anything, I would probably be all over it. (Carol just said delete the word "probably")

But am I the only one that thinks something may be adrift when the pay scale of athletes, TV stars, movie stars, recording artists, and talk show hosts is so incredibly high? How did that happen? America has become an entertainment junkie. And we are willing to pay a high price for our fix. What does it cost to get into a movie?  $10-12 not counting the trash can size container of popcorn and the half gallon cup of Mrs. Pibb. What does it cost for decent seats at a baseball game? The average ticket price in 2011 to see a Yankees game was $80.35 each. The monthly car payment on my first new car was equal to 2 seats to watch Derek Jeter play (Model T's were cheap back in the day.) On the other hand, the average ticket price to watch the Cincinnati Reds play was $15.22. Can't reconcile that one out in my head. I guess if you live in NYC, that $15 price in Ohio isn't doing you much good. The average for the Angels (before Pujols) was $22.92. The key word there is....was. The Angels might be bumping those ticket prices up a little next year, ya think?

Now before you begin to wonder if I am one of those crazy Occupy Sesame Street characters, I am a dyed in the wool, free market capitalist. If, however, we are stupid enough to pay what we pay for our entertainment, then those that provide that entertainment might as well reap the harvest. The entertainers aren't the problem. Just like the Colombians that are squeezing white powder out of coca leaves aren't the real problem. It's the consumers. I often wonder where the tipping point is on our entertainment spending. We found out a year or two ago that $4 gasoline was the point when the screaming began to occur. When will a ticket to the movies be $30? Or when will a ticket to an NFL game average $200? We'll see.

The $254 million dollar man. Move over Lee Majors, you're just chump change.