Should College Athletes be Paid? I Think Not

It is March and the NCAA basketball tournament is approaching. As I was watching a basketball game the other night one of the reporters mentioned whether these athletes should receive pay for their play. At first I thought it was an absurd remark but when I thought about it in more detail, college atheltics accounts for a strong portion of a school's revenue. For example, in the national championship game in football two years ago between Ohio State and Florida each team received $17 million that was to be divided among their school and the other teams in their respective conferences.

A player from the Ohio State football team mentions the pay of college athletes when he states, "I think, in all honesty, one of the most exploited groups of people in this country are college athletes, we basically have a job that generates millions and millions of dollars and at the end of the day we don't see any of it." He does make a valid point because when you think of all the television money, the advertisements, ticket sales, and merchandise sales such as jerseys and apparel that is a tremendous dollar amount that none of the players see. College athletics also play a large role in Las Vegas where betting on sports is very common.

Although these players may believe that they should be paid for all of the money they are helping other businesses and people make, they too are already being paid in a sense. The majority of these athletes are already on scholarship for four years of college which can amount to six-figures for out-of-state students. These athletes also are forgetting that they are given clothes that they do not have to pay for. I think it's very irrational and absurd to have college athletes paid because college is a place to learn, not to make money. It is a priveledge to be watched on national television on ESPN, not a job.

Gun Control Across Our Borders

I recently just got back from my spring break. Once I arrived back to my dorm at school I unpacked and started to relax. I turned on the television and started to watch the news. When I was watching the news there was a special story on CNN regarding the drug trafficing and dangerous drug cartels in Mexico. The story discussed how the United States is one of the largest contributors to the problem.

I was baffled and almost dissapointed at how the United States is such a big part of the problem in Mexico. the strict firearms laws, small number of gun shops, and few licensed gun holders provides an incentive for immigrants to purchase guns in the United States and then return to Mexico. A government report even stated that 99.4 percent of the weapons belonging to Mexican criminals are suspected to have come from the U.S.

The news story focused on how the U.S. contributes to the problem by selling a certain type of psitol named the FN-57. They are nicknamed "cop-killers". The firearm is the most used gun within the Mexican drug cartels mainly because they are fairly inexpensive and the ammunition that is used in the firearm is capable of piercing through body armor that is typically worn by the Mexican police. They can also be attained from in one day's drive from the border.

Although we are in a troubling economy right now, capitalism and selling weapons to immigrants that cross the border back into Mexico eventually just leads to larger problems for both our own citizens and the people of Mexico. I believe the U.S. should have a stricter policy for the sale of firearms because not only is it a problem in the U.S., it becomes a larger problem for the wellbeing of other nations as well.