That’s the great thing about a free market system. Barkley is essentially saying that the cost to him of providing a service is far less than people are willing to pay him for it. He might call it a “scam.” Economists call it “the surplus value.” It’s the same thing.
If the market level of a common job is $20 an hour, there are almost certainly some employers who would be glad to pay $30 an hour to get someone to do the job and some workers who would be glad to do it for $10 an hour. Both the employer and worker think they are getting a great deal at $20 an hour. They are—that’s what makes free exchange so great.
You know what? I ought to e-mail Charles Barkley and cut and paste what you just wrote.
That will probably get him off the hook and impress the ladies with him.
And that's why non-economists call economics a "dismal science". What Barkley gets for endorsing whatever is not the same as $30 an hour for sweeping the floors. To him, and to the thinking people who won't buy such products because of endorsements (there are a few of them), it is a scam.