Comment by nixgeek | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nixgeek | Hacker News Reader

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But the "many are not" flies in the face of a market economy and the fact nobody is forced to pay this compensation. It's your opinion they aren't worth it and you aren't the person writing the check. You're certainly entitled to this opinion :)

Arguably, success as a professional coach is substantially more objective and less subjective than many professions. Professional sports analyze everything. Statistics is huge both for the fans and the teams. Is the team winning? For colleges especially, you have annual turnover in student ranks so more in-and-out of players than NHL, NFL, NBA, etc etc. That's got to be tricky to manage. You have to attract talent to the institution and develop it when there.

So the simple fact is these coaches are able to demand these packages (and get them!). Someone out there has to write the checks and believes the performance and outcomes justifies the cost, that they are "worth it".

But the reason these coaches are able to get these salaries is because of policy decisions made by state governments. To some extent, voters have a civil duty to decide whether they agree with this policy, and vote accordingly.

It's true that someone has to write their checks, but the point is that that someone is the state government, which is funded by our tax dollars.

On the other hand, most state schools are getting less and less money from the state as American state governments turn away from funding education.

> But the reason these coaches are able to get these salaries is because of policy decisions made by state governments. To some extent, voters have a civil duty to decide whether they agree with this policy, and vote accordingly.

Only to the most remote, infinitesimal extent, do I as a voter have any deciding power. I can’t think of a voting strategy that I, as someone who opposes education funding going to stadiums or sports, could employ to voice that opposition. No public servant on my State ballot controls coaches’ salaries or the allocation of university funds. I can’t connect the dots.

This is what I was thinking as well

While the state government may be funded by your tax dollars, the schools aren't.

Public universities in the US are largely funded by state and federal dollars. For example, Washington State received a $565MM budget from state appropriations [1].

[1] https://budget.wsu.edu/20121-23-operating-budget/

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