We live in an interesting society. As an advocator for a free market and a government hands off agenda, I think that what a person makes should be up to them. What I find very curious is that when you look at what people make, you also see what our society values. Doctors obviously get paid respectable amounts because they keep us healthy. Politicians get paid a decent amount because they are lying, deceiving leeches who make sure that policy favors them in such a way. Policemen and first responders make slightly upwards of $30,000 for keeping us safe and secure, all the while 23 year old kids without degrees are making fortunes playing sports.
Like I said earlier, It is not my place to say who should make what. What I am trying to say is that according to what we pay people, we value them more than others. We are saying that as a society we value entertainment “any given Sunday” over the 24 hours and 7 days a week we expect a policeman to rush to our aide or an EMT to resuscitate if us if we go under. It is also ironic that the very celebrity athletes who are paid such high salaries are free to act according to their own wishes, but we as a people badger our own law enforcement officers as a whole for the mistakes made by a few. So I ask you this: if we did not have these brave men and women protecting our livelihoods, enforcing the law, putting out our fires, and giving us CPR on the way to the hospital, would it still be ok if we had good sport games coming on? Maybe it is time we re-evaluate what we value to begin with…
I see where you're coming from and I understand it, but we also must consider how much easier it is to spend on sporting events and sports in general. Policemen and firefighters don't have games to put on, on memorabilia to sell, so its a lot harder to contribute to their pay. Simply by watching a sporting event we are helping the league get paid. I would agree that those who protect us and risk their lives for the common people should definitely be paid more, but we can't just take money away from the sports industry to pay them, and we cannot simply donate money to raise their pay. In order to raise their pay it would be quite the process. Also, consider that if the pay is raised too much, it become more of an incentive than just protecting people. A lot of people are policemen or firefighters now because they want to serve and protect people. There becomes a lot less of those people and a lot more who don't particularly care about their job, but are in it for the good money. That in itself is dangerous. So while I agree that the fine men and women that protect us day by day should rewarded more for their efforts, there is no clear cut way to go about, and just because they are underpaid doesn't mean they are undervalued.
ReplyDeleteI think you both raise interesting points: it is a value decision to pay police and EMT a certain amount of money, because they are paid by taxpayers. And Isaac points out that simply paying more can be a complicated thing. Still, perhaps it would be better to have people go into policing for the money than for the power trip?
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