April 17th 2020
Thaddeus Young, a small forward with the Chicago Bulls, has played for 5 different NBA teams over the past 5 years. Regardless, as seemingly un-sentimental as that might sound… this circumstance is common within today’s NBA (National Basketball Association). Whereby, often times franchises enlist the service(s) of athletes, only to dispel that same player 1 or 2 seasons later. But furthermore, while this type of contract labor represents competitive advantages for business owners, often times families and workers are left to suffer through agonizingly stressful un-certainty and economic insecurity, throughout that process.
“Chauncey Billups traded for Allen Iverson, to Denver.”
“Demar Derozan traded for Kawhi Leonard, to San Antonio.”
“Adrian Peterson to Washington.”
“Jeremy Scott to Adidas.”
It’s madness! It’s sheer… madness!
“Neymar to Paris Saint Germain.”
But while we as a society often seek change… particularly in the wake of defeat, this lack of continuity and seemingly weekly over-haul is now becoming ingrained in our culture. But with that being said, today I ask… is this a good thing? Do you like your cities sports icons departing to Denver? And do you believe that a change in personnel will make you better? Or rather, where do we draw the line on job turnover?
Because… while a change of scenery and especially acquaintances can effect a wide range of lifelong experiences, when do we know when to settle into our circumstances and, “ride it out,” instead? Especially when every 2 weeks, suddenly, our favorite player is leaving town.
Which is to say, that I believe pro-sports leagues in America today are intentionally normalizing job turnover and in many ways have impacted people’s attitudes towards it. Nevertheless, imagine being stuck with the same people your whole life? Can you? And in some ways I believe that most people… become akin to the people whom they choose to spend the majority of their time around. Nevertheless and furthermore, in that way… social change itself, I find is often positive. But in contrast, experiences which haven’t met your prior expectations often create a negative portrayal of, "change," itself… and can also create a reluctance towards change, itself.
So how much, “job turnover,” is healthy? And how much change is good? Or more specifically, how often should we move to a new city? Whereby, Google states (*statistical reference link) that most Americans move cities approximately every 5 years… but as the world becomes a more crowded place… is that a luxury or a natural occurrence (i.e. inbreeding)? And in conclusion, I wish that pension plans were government based and worked around yearly W2’s, in order to create a path to retirement for constantly changing work-places... or jobs that are growing less and less consistent, particularly in terms of staying in 1 city. But in conclusion, in an era when job turnover happens at an unprecedented rate, are pro-sports distracting the masses? Or even tricking us as regular fans... so that we think this type of thing is, "normal," and so that we don’t mind as much when we're too, "getting fired?" And should we add pension plans to our federal taxes?
-William Larsen, Civilians News Founder