Why Stellar Pay for Stellar Athletes is Justified

The world's highest paid professional athlete earned USD 285 million (GBP 219 million) last year, with 275 million in winnings and 10 million in endorsement deals. He has been sponsored by some of the world's most notable brands, including Swiss watchmaker Hublot, and fast food restaurant Burger King. The crowds are drawn in by his raw power and audacious agility. His name is Floyd Mayweather, and he has 50 wins and no losses on his professional boxing record, and that's why he earns nearly twice as much as the next highest paid athlete, Lionel Messi, and 15 times as much as the highest paid female athlete, Serena Williams.

Many allegations have been levied against world-class athletes in regard to their pay, which often soars into the millions. Most of these criticisms are similar to the following statement:

• "It is a disgrace that [insert athlete's name] makes so much more than the valiant nurses that serve our NHS."

In this article, I hope to outline why athletes, like Mayweather and Messi, deserve the millions that they receive, and why it isn't fair to compare their stellar levels of pay to those in health and social care.

In any society that values freedom, both in the social and economic sense, people have the liberty to make choices but are also subjected to bear the responsibility of those choices. A great benefit of living in a free and prosperous society is the ability to choose the path that you take in life; the ability to choose to pursue any career or proficiency in any activity as long as it does not damage anyone else's ability to do so.

As a result of this, it is natural that there will be a gap in incomes, because it makes sense for people to earn different amounts while pursuing different targets. For this reason, equality of outcome can never be achieved, unless you impede the success of those who are outperforming others. In this case of pay for stellar athletes, the same logic applies. Professional athletes are essentially entertainers; they are entertainers to the same extent that musicians, comedians and actors are. Athletes combine their natural ability with hours of training and hard work to provide entertainment for paying viewers.

 The cost of all goods and services is determined by supply and demand; the higher the demand, and the lower the supply, the lower the cost of the good/service to the consumer. Athletes are in high demand; an estimated 3.4 billion people watched at least some of this summer's World Cup in Russia, and they are in low supply, there are few people can achieve the same feats. Nurses, however, earn less; most people do not have chronic diseases (lower demand) and there are far more qualified nurses than world-class athletes (higher supply).

Professional athletes should be viewed no differently from any other form of entertainer (few people seem to complain about an actor making lots of money) and their stellar incomes should be treated in the same way.