Now this is my personal belief but.... what do you think?

Question

I know that I'm opening myself up for alot of people to be rude and crude and irrational but:

I think that the military members should be paid more. This has been something that has been eating at me for a while. We have people like Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, George Clooney, etc, getting paid millions of dollars to do stupid, pointless movies that the plot line has just been reworded from some other movie, but yet our troops are barely given enough to sustain themselves and or their families on. I personally believe that the troops should be paid more. What do you think? Do you think its fair that we have idiots like Tom Cruise who are willing to jump up and down on a couch getting paid millions of dollars and that we don't pay enough to the people who are willing to lay down their lives for this country?

And don't think the death benefits actually pay off, they don't.

Depends on when you served and if you retire from it, if not the bennies aren't that great. Like now if I retired from the Navy I wouldn't make that much, I would get about $1000 a month, thats it....

I agree teachers need to be paid more!

Okay, incorporate all the above then, CEO's, Actors, Authors(the ones that make the big bucks), NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and all other associations that pay people millions of dollars to work or play for them.

As far as me crying and reality setting in.... I would rather serve my country than stand up in front of some stupid video camera. I've had this personal view for a long time, and I just wanted to see how many people agreed with me, I frankly don't give a damn about Tom Cruise, I give a damn about making sure you have the right to bash me and my fellow armed forces. Guess what, thats whats important to me. I just pointed out things.

Answer 1

yes they should, Companies that hire private security people for Iraq have to pay them about 120,000 a year. If this is what the job is worth to a private firm, that should be the @ going price for that type of work.

Answer 2

Most jobs that are quite important on a societal level - military, education, social work, etc.... are poorly paid. Those that are more, I guess "frivolous", like sports & entertainment, are vomitously overpaid. I'm a teacher so I've thought about this paradox a lot. I think it's something along the lines of the number of personnel (military, education, whatever) needed compounded with the relatively (relative to the number of personnel, I mean) small amount we as a society pay.

What I'm saying is, Tom Cruise makes a gazillion dollars per picture b/c many many people pay $10+ to see him. There are lots more soldiers than Tom Cruises, and the pool of money to pay them is smaller.

I have to temper this with two bits of info, from opposing sides. I'm a teacher, but I teach in a Catholic school, which means I make about HALF of my public school peers. But even they make fairly little considering all they do. The other thing is that I grew up in Southern California and know a lot of actors.......most actors do not make anywhere near megabucks. There are not too many actors/actresses that are huge earners, $1M or more per pic. For most it's a job & a struggle, just like for the rest of us.

But I absolutely agree that the wages/benefits of our armed forces is absolutely disgraceful.

Answer 3

You are right they DO NOT get paid enough. But the reason for this is that they are paid through the government ie...federal tax dollars and the american people don't like taxes as it is and congress refuses to attempt to give the military more than they already get especially for stupid stuff like paying the ones who protect their freedoms, the ones who lay their lives on the line, the ones who keep their dumb a**es in office. (ok so i live by a military base and see it all the time) most of the military if not a higher rank than say specialist (e-4) and if they are married then you can bet they are on some kind of welfare program, food stamps, or to make it by they are going to cash loan places which they can never get out of. And the reason movie stars get so much money is they are under contract from movie theaters, when a movie makes 40 million it's opening weekend that pays basically for the stars.
No the death benifits don't pay off either, specially if they are kia i'ld rather have my soldier home with me than have the 500,000. that the army pays. but what is one to do unless you retire military, do your twenty + taht's the only way it pays off unless you are an officer but then you have to go to school for that basically. so it's a loose loose situation I admire those guys that do it and I hope these protesters who are protesting servicemen's funerals all burn in h*ll for it because it is their job and at least they have to ballz to due their job even if they don't support the war they need to support their troops because these troops are protecting their right to protest....and yes I have personally seen these protestors outside at a memorial service at my local army post so all this goes deep.

Answer 4

Yes they should get more pay. But its not cus actors make millions..I mean no one told the service men and women to join up. They could have become actors you know.. they just chose the military. I'm not saying what they are doing is bad serving the country . They should be getting paid a bunch more, but the government is the government what you gonna do.?

Answer 5

Certainly, our military personel are very deserving of what they have, and probably more. The comparison with actors is irrelavent, however. It's not like they are getting paid millions at the expense of the military personel getting raises. It comes from a different pool, and is dictated by supply and demand. People in entertainment, and I include athletes in this point, get what they get based on the interest of their fans. The only way their pay would go down is if people stopped watching them.

Answer 6

I could not agree with you more, I am a military spouse and I see all kinds of poverty on different bases. It also sickens me to here how much these celebrities are making. The guy that plays Ray, on Everybody Love Raymond makes 1 million and episode, that's an episode. That's a heck of a lot. You know how many people in America in general could use some of that money. Its crazy.

Answer 7

I agree & there are many others that I served with that agree. My job in the Marines was the Upkeep, Operation & repair of 2 Radar systems responsible for landing aircraft, now, in civilian world that pay is on average of $80K+ a year. I think I made around 18K a year as a Corporal (E-4)

Answer 8

Military people don't do it for the money, and I am going to beg you not to degrade our military by putting them in the same sentence as that lose clooney. The military has never ever ever been a high paying job, but the rewards will be with you through many lifetimes. You can feel better by no longer seeing any those loser hollyweird movies. At least don't pay for them. Signed ......a Veteran

Answer 9

I agree that military service men and women should be paid more.

But it really has nothing to do with movie stars. Let's say ten million people go to see a particular movie. And the lead actor or actress gets one dollar from each of them. Or an author sells a book that ten million people buy, and the author gets one dollar per copy sold. That's $10M. But if nobody goes to see the movie or buys the book, they get nothing. It's called proportional payment. And it's a completely different type of income model.

Now, if you want to complain about CEOs getting million dollar salaries, I'm right with you on that one.

Answer 10

Hey I agree.
Congressmembers get giant pay raises for nothing more dangerous than putting their fat butts in a leather chair. When the're asked about military pay raises, they are always for them, but there's just not enough money. Yeah why don't they take away the money Cheneys been funneling to Halliburton, and subsides to big oil, there'd be enough.

Answer 11

Yes I agree. I'm not just saying that because I'm a Army wife either. Soldiers dont get paid enough to risk thy're life for this country.