The four athletes I have zeroed in on are representatives of the haves and have-nots, even though they all professionally make a living from their respective codes.
Money aside, their cases highlight the attitude, blind loyalty, double standards and hypocrisy that prevail in the subconscious mind.
While fans generally wish their sporting heroes all the best, they baulk on finding out Black Caps leftarmer Boult was ordained a million-dollar man when the gavel came to rest at the IPL cricket meat market in India this week.
"It's a lot of money. It's bizarre how that much money can be put on the head of a player to play for six or seven weeks. It's a huge honour," Boult confessed.
Now juxtapose that with the White Ferns playing in Australia and it's enough to make anyone blush "pink" after New Zealand Cricket announced a ground-breaking $30,000 contract for elite female national players last year.
However, a bemused Boult did say it wasn't all about money but also the thrill of playing in front of passionate thousands.
While this country debates whether Carter is a victim of tall poppy syndrome it's easy to overlook he stands to earn up to $1500 a minute every time he runs on to the field in the Top 14 competition in France.
Suffice it to say Land Rover should be commended for dumping Carter this week from a reportedly lucrative sponsorship because of his drink-driving charge.
In the scheme of things, whatever the outcome in a French court, the fiscal cost will be parking meter coins for the former All Black who recorded excessive blood-alcohol levels last week.
It'll be interesting to see what the sentence is and it makes one wonder what the New Zealand justice system would have meted out to dispel widespread belief that there are two sets of legislation in the country - one for the rich and famous and the other for the great unwashed.
Carter took to social media to confess he had made "a massive error of judgment", which no doubt his lawyers will use as a mitigating factor.
The 34-year-old, in accepting the 4WD conglomerate's zero tolerance towards drinking and driving, also took the loss of income on the chin while his minders attempt to quell the flames with other global sponsors such as adidas.
Football Ferns skipper Erceg is retiring from international duties at the ripe old age of 27, following 130 caps for her country.
Erceg, who plies her trade in the United States, highlighted the country's top female soccer players' plight when she revealed on TV One the need to contact her parents to beg for $20 when she ran out of fuel in her car to make training some days.
Like the White Ferns, the Football Ferns are grossly undervalued to the extent that they are expected to put their futures on hold simply so they can do their country proud.
The reality is both the women's codes have a better chance of becoming world champions than their male counterparts in their codes (the White Ferns were one-day world champions in 2000).
Some will argue men play a more exciting brand of the game and the intensity of competition and number of teams overshadow the female ones but they are just red herrings.
While mind-numbing amounts of cash change hands in the male domain, a prudent society will recognise if a woman engages in a code the chances are her experience will rub off on her children while dad's at the clubrooms after his matches.
When Luatua dropped the bombshell that he had a signed a two-year deal with Bristol
under coach Pat Lam, all hell broke loose.
The loosie was accused of having no respect for the black jersey and ABs coach Steve Hansen got stuck into everyone from Lam to Luatua's agents.
The bottom line is Luatua did what was best for his future, like any employee, regardless of whether he will be successful or not.
You see, sport is nothing but a monetary tool. The stadia have evolved into malls of commodity where marketing taps into an emotional audience not just to evoke parochialism to satisfy governments but, frighteningly, entrench sport as an integral part of culture.
The irony is it's people - buying merchandise, subscribing to pay TV and going through the turnstiles - who wield control in the front-row seats and have the power to put an end to the unholy union between socialism and capitalism in sport in a bid to quash inequality.
