BretJ
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2012
- Messages
- 6,457
- Reaction score
- 2,533
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- Political Leaning
- Moderate
That's how it works today in the current system, but maybe that's not how it should work. Why should a basketball player earn more money than a soldier? Why should a lawyer who makes his living suing doctors make more money than a nurse who saves lives for a living?
Because life is about reality. Reality is that outside a purely communist society, your skills are worth what others are willing to pay and how much you are willing to accept. Those questions are like asking how in the world did Billy Bob Thornton score with Angelina Jolie or how the heck did Marilyn Manson hook up with Rose McGowan? Just as in real life, they were willing to accept the services of the other.
Skills are like any other commodity. When I was active duty, I was an EOD (Bomb Disposal) tech. I did not get payed much, but I was happy with my job. When I re-enlisted, I signed up for 6 years and was rewarded with a $3000 bonus for doing so. I retired in 1995. Currently, EOD techs typically see in the neighborhood of 80,000 dollars to re-enlist. In addition, they receive all kinds of incentive pays over and above their salary that I did not. Is that "fair"? My skills where the same. My willingness to work was still the same. The difference is that my skills were not in demand at the time. There was no need to offer me incentive pays to continue doing what I did. Now that Afghanistan is winding down, guess what? They are cutting way back on bonuses and incentive pays because those skills are no longer required as much.
At one point, MCSEs and Novell CNEs where getting paid a pretty good amount. Once the market became saturated with them what do you think happened? The market "equalized". Those that were willing to work for what was offered did so. Those that did not had to look elsewhere.