Terrible understanding of labor economics. Football players and firefighters are not static populations, they are also subject to labor forces; people choose to

Terrible understanding of labor economics. Football players and firefighters are not static populations, they are also subject to labor forces; people choose to enter jobs based on the quality of the job and the pay. Heck, Tom Brady would probably make an excellent firefighter, if that's where the money was! We aren't blessed with a surplus of superb teachers; we pay smart people more to work on Wall Street than teach, and so end up with an army of underqualified teachers. If we needed football players in every city, we'd pay them less, too, and they'd be mediocre. The amount of jobs available for firefighters is always high because you need them, and it's that which leads to their lower salaries, and in turn mediocrity. Hayek economics is terrible with externalities; if this post were accurate, we'd never have a shortage of firefighters.