[pest]

[quote="Old Reliable":b1c61]Yes that is a rather interesting point of view, however reality doesnt follow guidelines..take for example professional athletes....[/quote:b1c61]

You have to look at athletes in the sense of how much revenue do they bring in. Its easy to say that no one is worth $250,000+ (much more is some cases) for an hour of work (game). But first, its not an hour of work, an athlete needs to stay in shape pretty much year round to stay competitive or lose his job. And how much $ did he make for the team in tickets, concessions and tv revenue. It has to be much, much more or the team will not survive. Back to supply and demand. The supply of first string major league ball players is pretty slim, and the pay is pretty high. The supply of second rate ballpayers is much bigger, with the pay being much less, if any. Not much tv revenue for AA baseball either.

It has also been suggested that in some sports, athletes are very unfairly paid. They bring in all the revenue, and the owners keep the lions share of the profits. Of course, the people suggesting this are typically the players or their agents.

The other extreme is sweatshops. If these workers could get better jobs, they would. Many work in sweatshops because they are in the country illegally. They dont meet the conditions required to hold a 'normal' job. They lack vital job skills for normal jobs and are probably paid fairly. There are extreme cases where thy are closer to slaves than employees, but those are criminal activities, not free market. I am also making these statements assuming that practices like the "company store" no longer exist. At least in my part of the world. Again, those would be criminal, and not free market.