
The absurdity of athletes taking on the burden of billionaires amid pandemic - clairity
https://theundefeated.com/features/the-absurdity-of-athletes-taking-on-the-burden-of-billionaires/
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Ancalagon
Wow, I had no idea all the money pledged to the rebuilding of the Notre Dame
was reneged on...

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clairity
yes, just to be clear, the linked article[0] calls out french billionaires for
reneging, but the article is from last june, so who knows what's happned
regarding funding since then. they say small french donors and the government
is providing funding though. it's interesting that one foundation president
estimates that 90% of rebuild funding is from american donors (big and small,
presumably).

[0]
[https://apnews.com/d69824caa68b4d24b13e91fed77dd953](https://apnews.com/d69824caa68b4d24b13e91fed77dd953)

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ornornor
Isn’t that solved by taxes where rich people pay more taxes than others to
help eliminate inequalities in society?? Of course, none of that works when
the rich make up loopholes for themselves so that they and their corporations
can dodge most or all taxes.

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clairity
we all need to do our part for our neighbors and colleagues.

taking care of employees who depend heavily on the company for their lives
(the regular employees) is the duty of a company and its wealthy owners. it's
not the responsibility of the highly-paid employees (the players) to take care
of the low-paid ones, even though some players are going above and beyond in
that regard.

it's also not right to shirk that responsibility onto the public via social
programs (what walmart does in many places).

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ornornor
I think it is. Not in terms of employees but in terms of population: how do
you pay for employment insurance? People working pay for people who are out of
work so they get a chance to find work again without getting evicted.

And so the more you earn the more you should pay in taxes which go to those
who earn much less or nothing.

If you don’t have that, it’s worse for everyone: more crime, less opportunity,
more diseases, etc. These are things that impact everyone, rich or poor.

And when you get high enough up the food chain, yes it sucks to pay 50% tax on
your highest bracket but really what is it you can’t do with 5 millions that
you can do with 10?

What Walmart does is shameful, and they’re not the only ones underpaying
employees and relying on public programs to top it up. But that’s something
that could be legislated away: force companies to pay living wages.

