Greg Norman: Scale Back Prize Money Out of Respect for Economic Climate

The golfer Greg Norman believes that rich professional golfers need to be more sensitive to the economic realities facing ordinary people, and he has a simple request: Take less prize money.

Norman said this:

"Prize money's being scaled back in Europe, I wouldn't be surprised if prize money's scaled back in the US just out of respect to every citizen and taxpayer over there who's suffering dramatically. It seems like on the PGA Tour the players are still playing for a million dollars first week, like they're recession-proof."

I appreciate Norman's sentiment, but I have a couple of observations:

1. It's easy for Norman, who has already made hundreds of millions of dollars in his life, to volunteer other people to take pay cuts.
2. If Norman thinks rich people need to give back while the middle class and the poor are suffering, wouldn't it be more effective to argue for higher tax rates on the rich and more government programs for the poor, rather than for cutting golfers' pay?

The bottom line is that golfers are paid what they're worth. If the current economic climate causes sponsors to disappear, golfers' prize money will decline as a result, but Norman's argument for cutting pay simply "out of respect to every citizen" wouldn't accomplish anything.