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Money's been a bit of a hot topic as of late.
It seems some of us have more than others and recently, at least in the world of sports, the news about the haves has smothered the facts about the have-nots.
The story of the year in basketball seems to be whether or not LeBron James will remain as a Cleveland Cavalier after the 2009 season.
Opinions vary, but most, because James had been outspoken in his desire to be the first 1 billion dollar athlete, assume he's going to jump ship and head to New York.
What will that cost the Knickerbockers is a good question. We don't have that answer yet, but since James already turned down a multi-year deal worth 80 million, we should presume a bit more than that.
Tiger Woods, now considered the best paid athlete in sports, didn't seem to suffer from our recent economic downturn, bringing home about 128 million in 2008.
Meanwhile, in baseball, an incredibly strong player's union has resulted in no salary cap for ballplayers and an unmitigated spending spree in recent years.
How unmitigated you might wonder?
Well, the New York Yankees signed three players last week for a cost of $423,000,000. That's 423 plus million for those of you afraid to count zeroes.
Which, as it turns out, is the about same amount of money Germany has pledged to rebuild Afghanistan.
423.5 is also the cost of all the anti-malarial nets currently needed to stop the spread of that disease worldwide, with about a 100 million left over for medicine for those whose nets didn't arrive in time.
Or, if you go by Doctors Without Borders calculations, the salary of those three players is also enough to feed two good meals to 242 million of the 350 million folks who go hungry each day.
And, if environmental issues seem more pressing, well that's enough to help the Save-an-Acre organization purchase and protect 847,000 acres of rainforest, which would go a long way to slowing global warming and stopping a crisis unprecedented in human history.
Oh, forgot to mention that last February, the Yankees also paid Derek Jeter 22 million.
If you add those numbers up that's just shy of 450 million. Enough to provide a year's supply of AIDS medications to exactly half the people who currently need the meds, but maybe not quite enough to win the Yankees another championship.
Oh yeah, our values, they're definitely in the right place.
