Question

...

Why are rappers and sports stars earning more in a week than nurses in a year/

There's a fallacy which I can't remember the name of; it's about people that are greatly valued in the community such as nurses, teachers, firemen etc and that their annual salary is often less than what many top celebrities such as sports stars, film stars, rappers etc earn in a week or even a day. People then come out with some sort of crazy statement about how "we" should stop paying these celebrities so much and pay that money to the nurses instead!
Can you tell me what the name of this fallacy is please?
asked on Monday, Dec 31, 2018 04:28:48 AM by

Top Categories Suggested by Community

Comments

Want to get notified of all questions as they are asked? Update your mail preferences and turn on "Instant Notification."

Master the "Rules of Reason" for Making and Evaluating Claims

Claims are constantly being made, many of which are confusing, ambiguous, too general to be of value, exaggerated, unfalsifiable, and suggest a dichotomy when no such dichotomy exists. Good critical thinking requires a thorough understanding of the claim before attempting to determine its veracity. Good communication requires the ability to make clear, precise, explicit claims, or “strong” claims. The rules of reason in this book provide the framework for obtaining this understanding and ability.

This book / online course is about the the eleven rules of reason for making and evaluating claims. Each covered in detail in the book

Take the Online Course

Answers

...
Keith Curley
1
Historically this is called "the paradox of value."

An example often used is that water is so much more "valuable" for life than diamonds, yet diamonds command a higher market price. So, one would argue that nurses are more important or valuable than athletes, or we hear about how important teachers are yet they're paid less etc etc.

But as Dr. Bennett mentions market prices are determined roughly by supply and demand. There's an awful lot of water which is much more accessible than there are diamonds. Similarly with nurses and teachers compared to celebrities. So the supply--how much of something is offered at what prices--is shifted so far compared to the demand--how much people want at what prices--that the price is low for teachers, water etc.

One fallacy that seems to be involved is the fallacy of division. Although the total amount of water is much more valuable than the total amount of diamonds in the world that does not mean that any small quantity of water would be or even should be more valuable. So with nurses, firemen etc--we might prefer to lose ALL of our celebrities to losing ALL of our nurses, but that doesn't mean we'd care so much about losing any particular one, which could be more easily replaced in the nurse category than in the celebrity one.

answered on Tuesday, Jan 01, 2019 11:41:23 AM by Keith Curley

Comments

...
Bo Bennett, PhD
1
There is no fallacy; just a misunderstanding of economics. Salaries are roughly based on the law of supply and demand, not perceived value. If someone were to claim that teachers SHOULD be paid more than professional athletes, then they are just expressing an opinion.
answered on Monday, Dec 31, 2018 09:03:37 AM by Bo Bennett, PhD

Comments

...
Abdulazeez
0
What you are referring to doesn't strike me as a fallacy, but it could be the result of a cognitive bias called the just-world fallacy or the just-world hypothesis.
answered on Monday, Dec 31, 2018 04:54:12 AM by Abdulazeez

Comments