\n<\/p>\n
When your average baseball fan goes to a ballgame these days, invariably he grumbles about the expense \u2014 $50 tickets, $15 beers, $9 hot dogs, and so forth. \u201cIt\u2019s those greedy players,\u201d he complains to the guy next to him. \u201cThey make millions of dollars, so the club has to charge high prices for everything. They should be grateful just to have a job in this economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
In reality, of course, the price of game tickets is completely unrelated to player salaries, which are tied to overall industry revenue. If you\u2019re in doubt about this, ask yourself: When teams sell off players and lower their payrolls, how come tickets prices don\u2019t drop as well?<\/a> As for concessions, invariably these are run by separate companies and their prices are independent of what\u2019s happening on the field. But the team owners are more than happy to encourage this faulty reasoning, because it gives them PR cover whenever they lock out players or conspire to keep salaries low \u2014 the average fan blames labour, not ownership.<\/p>\n In the same vein, law firms have been enjoying the fruits of a longstanding confusion in the legal sector: the one that links billable hour targets to associate salaries. The reasoning, such as it is, goes something like this: \u201cSure, firms make associates work long hours and meet hourly targets in the thousands every year. But look at the fat salaries the associates take home! Considering how unskilled they are, those associates should be grateful. If they want to work fewer hours and get more \u2018work-life balance,\u2019 they should accept a lower salary. If not, they should put their heads down and keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n