There has recently been an insane mumbo jumbo about taxes. Lawmakers both in Canada, the United States and other first-world countries are looking for ways to balance their governmental budget. Questions like "Should we tax the wealthy?" and "What departments should receive cuts in subsidies?" have been asked over and over again. I have an idea: Go no further than professional sports teams.
In recent years, the field of professional sports has exploded. Yes, it EXPLODED. Through mass media, popular culture and excessive advertising, the popularity of mainstream major leagues like the National Hockey League and various similar organizations have increased enormously. With the exorbitantly excessive profits made from merchandising and revenues from very high ticket prices, these teams have managed to make cash by the hundreds of millions. Where better to spend it than to pay nonsensically high salaries to the players. I mean really! The likes of Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby make millions of dollars per year. For what? To perform well in their sport and please the masses. Whilst police officers, who keep us safe, win low salaries, these stage actors earn thousands, millions per year! An ordinary man or woman with a good, stable job wins in and around 32 000$* (this being the average salary in Canada), whilst its 2 million in the NHL!! 2 million dollars! There's a major problem here. It has multiplied itself by 10 since 1972**.
Thus, here comes my idea. There are about 800 professional athletes*** (whom play in the NHL. The average salary is of around 2 million. If we imposed a 25% tax on this, supplemented to the regular income tax, the state would make an amazing amount of cash! Imagine, 800 x 500 000 makes over 400 million dollars. If this would be placed in university subsidies (in its totality), around 40 000 students could go to college FOR FREE! And that's not all, if we imposed a tax on earnings in professional sports teams, we would make an even bigger amount!
To conclude from this, I petition Mr Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finances, to consider this in his next budget. The 400 million or more could be used anywhere the Conservative government desires. This simple idea is a possible way to help balance the budget, and possibly promote equality.
Sources:
*http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/famil21a-eng.htm
**http://proicehockey.about.com/od/collectivebargainingfaq/f/nhl_salaries.htm
***http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats.htm?pg=8
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