Editor,
What drives the use of steroids in sports? Is it the obsessive desire to obtain millions of dollars and celebrity at the expense of an even playing field? Or is there a more serious underlying problem with entertainment in general?
One of the most disturbing facts about our capitalist nation is the misappropriation of funds directed to the salaries of entertainers. Everyone should agree that the value an athlete, movie star, talk-show host, team-owner, etc., brings to the average citizen is very small. Granted, they do offer a minuscule diversion from our daily trials and tribulations, as did the jesters in the king's court during the Middle Ages. But to allow these entertainers to horde such great amounts of wealth at the expense of more benevolent societal programs is unacceptable.
Our society is also subjected to these people because it equates wealth with influence. Perhaps a solution to this problem and an alternative to defeated school levies, crumbling infrastructures, as well as all the programs established to help feed, clothe and shelter those who cannot help themselves would be to tax this undeserved wealth.
Entertainers could keep 1 percent of the gross earnings reaped from their endeavors and 99 percent could be deposited into the public coffers.
The old ideas of the redistribution of wealth have failed, and it is time to adapt to modern-day preferences. People put their money into entertainment above everything else - isn't it time to tap that wealth? Does anyone think this will reduce the quality of entertainment? It seems to me that when entertainers received less income, the quality was much higher.
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Joe Bialek
Daily Lobo reader
