Should College Athletes Be Paid?

Critics may argue that if college athletes are paid, all the other members of other extra curricular activities would find it unjust if they weren't paid as well. That includes, but is not limited to, debate teams, cheer squads, and other various clubs but the purpose of secondary education is not to pad the pockets of students who wish to excel, but to further education.

Regardless of what anyone says student athlete's across the nation are generating more and more in revenue for top-tier Division 1 colleges. Student athletes of major Division 1 programs in some cases are bringing in more revenue for their universities than all other university sports and student organizations put together. If a debate team or a cheer squad took in $87 million in revenue and $65 million in profits like the University of Texas football team did in 2008, then they too should be paid. Student athletes are literally being pimped for hundreds of millions of dollars. These athletes devote so much time to the teams that they are apart of and if that team wins a National Title or gets any public notoriety the colleges reap the benefits of all the athletes hard work. Being a student athlete is basically a job in itself and college athletes deserve to be paid for it.

If students were paid to play Division 1 sports then student athletes would have more incentive to stay in school. It could be argued that more student-athletes would choose to stay in school and earn degrees if they were receiving some form of payment. Not many college athletes have a chance in pro sports and staying in school they could earn some type of money while earning a degree at the same time.

Just to mention one misconception, if college athletes were to be paid these kids would not be getting checks and salaries bigger than their parents. The money that they earn would most likely be going to some type of pension, trust fund, or retirement fund. Also, surely certain requirements will have to be met for the athletes to receive any type of funds for sports at all. Such as minimum GPA's, team requirements, etc. College athletes would still have to work hard not only as athletes but as students as well.

Fisher vs University of Texas: Is Affirmative Action Necessary?

Recently the Supreme Court took up a case on affirmative action and the outcome could cause changes in the policy nationwide.

Abigail Fisher claims that she was not admitted into the University of Texas at Austin in 2008 because less qualified minority students were chosen over her.

Obviously it is wrong to select someone for a job or admission purely on the basis of their skin color. However, if two candidates of different races have the same qualifications the edge should be given to the minority. We have to show special attention to minorities or minorities will receive no attention at all.

Let's talk about what affirmative action is because most have a casuistic concept of what it is. Affirmative action is not a quota system, it is NOT A REQUIREMENT and it is not unfair. It simply allows publicly funded organizations to use race as a small factor in the selection process. This was ruled by the Supreme Court on several occasions. According to affirmative action, race can only be one factor among many.

Affirmative action gives opportunity where there would otherwise be none. If society took a look at the narrative of a minority family people would understand this. A typical black family consists of a single mother and a few kids. Seeing that this family has only one parent present the family receives only one paycheck to survive on. The mother is faced with a tough decision; either choose to keep one job and be able to teach her kids but with little money or work 2 or 3 jobs and not have any time to spend with her kids. This results in the children having problems at home. They are forced to go days without lights or water or food, or are subjected to raise themselves because their mother is always working. When these children go to school we cannot expect them to be interested in whether 2x + 3x is congruent to 3x + 2x, their mind is focused on their problems at home. Their mind is thinking of how their family will have supper tonight. These children wind up not learning very much in school and make low test scores and consequently aren't able to go to college for financial and scholastic reasons. These children grow up to be adults and settle for minimum wage jobs for a source of income. These adults start families and realize that minimum wage is not enough to survive. The dad has no qualifications for a well-paying job and he resorts to crime attempting to support his family. The dad is put into prison or leaves his family ashamed that he cannot support them leaving the single mother alone and the cycle repeats itself. If the next generation grew up and made decent SAT/ACT test scores equal to someone from more privileged backgrounds why not give them a chance? Success is not guaranteed but why not give someone an opportunity? Their lives are setup for failure all they can ask for is an opportunity.

We hear a number of whites say affirmative action is discrimination against whites. Well it is, but it is necessary to compensate for the discrimination already taking place against minorities. If whites made up less than 15% of the population, as most minorities do, they would be begging for an equal opportunity while trying to coexist in a country full of others. If these whites being discriminated against were equally qualified what is the big fuss about? Is it life threatening that he/she has to settle for Yale instead of Harvard because a minority student was admitted over him/her? Is it so serious that he/she has to settle for $109k a year instead of $110k a year? If someone is qualified chances are that person will get what they earned. It is utterly ridiculous that whites, who make up 72% of America's population, are playing the race card.

There will come a time when affirmative action is no longer needed for Blacks, Hispanics, and other racial minority groups to have an equal opportunity. However, even after, affirmative action will continue to be necessary. Affirmative action is needed for all disadvantaged individuals. Individuals such as, women in the workplace, such as males who are becoming a minority in colleges and universities, even poor white families. Whether it be race based, sex based, age based, need based, affirmative action will be necessary until the day all Americans receive a fair chance at the American Dream.

The Ron Paul Revolution

Whether the President has been Democrat or Republican the result has been the same: more government, more looting of Americans, more inflation, more police-state measures, more unnecessary war, and more centralization of power. Ron Paul wrote in his book, The Revolution: A Manifesto, "With national bankruptcy looming, politicians from both parties continue to make multi-trillion dollar promises of 'free' goods from the government, and hardly a soul wonders if we can still afford to have troops in - this is not a misprint - 130 countries around the world." Every 4 years we face an election between only 2 candidates who hardly differ but pretend to represent dramatically different philosophies of government. There will be a revolution needed to make a change.

Ron Paul on Civil Liberties:

When asked if he would legalize drugs and gay marriage, he replied:

"My defense of liberty is the defense of their right to practice their religion and say their prayers where they want and practice their life. If you do not protect liberty across the board it's a 1st Amendment type issue. We don't have a 1st Amendment so that we can talk about the weather. We have the 1st Amendment so we can say very controversial things. So, for people to say that yes we have our religious beliefs protected but people who want to follow something else or a controversial religion you can’t do this. If you have the inconsistency then you're really not defending liberty but there are strict rules on freedom of choice of this sort because you can’t hurt other people, you can’t defame other people. But, yes you have the right to do things that are very controversial."

Ron Paul on Monetary Policy:

"You can't have a government like this without an income tax but we don't want a government like this. This was not the kind of government found by our founders of the country. It's not what was written in the Constitution. We've only had an income tax since 1913. But, if you want a welfare state and if you want to police the world and pay for the defense of Japan and Germany, send foreign aid to the Soviet Union you not only need the income tax you need the Federal Reserve to print up the money when the deficit is accumulated. So, we think the government should be much smaller. If the government is small then you don't need an Income tax."

Ron Paul on Foreign Policy:

"Going into Iraq and Afghanistan and threatening Iran is the worst thing we could do for our national security. I am less safe, the American people are less safe for this; it's the policy that is wrong. Tactical movements and shifting troops around and taking in 30 more and reducing by 5, totally irrelevant! We need a new foreign policy that says we ought to mind our own business, bring our troops home, defend this country, defend our borders... "

Ron Paul on Welfare:

"I don't have the right to steal from you because somebody out in the street needs your help. You have an obligation personally to help them but I don't have the right to interfere with your right to take something from you and deliver it to somebody out on the street."

Ron Paul's Revolutionary aims have influenced masses of people including 2012 Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson. "His efforts have changed America; they've changed me," says Gov. Johnson. I don't agree with all of Ron Paul's policies but I do agree that we need to change the way America operates and it may take a Revolution to do so.

References:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGcNVTfJ-XE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4AUUYFeB9c




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