Ben Stein (former Nixon speechwriter and, more recently, Comedy Central game show host) has an interesting piece in the NY Times on the unbelievable disparity between the paychecks of investment bankers (etc.) and the soldiers that serve to protect society.
This seems like kind of a "no duh" premise for most people (of course the guys who sign up to leave their families and risk their lives deserve more than $1,900 a month) yet military pay has been embarassingly low for generations. It’s no surprise that the military procurement system turns into a hotbed of corruption as officers walk through the revolving door into the defense industry and get huge paychecks for pushing through weapons systems that don’t work for their buddies back in the Pentagon.
I was having some similar thoughts the other day with respect to teachers — another "no duh" situation that somehow seems to go perennially unaddressed in our society. How would things change (for better or worse) if people started becoming schoolteachers for the money?
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Kinky Friedman is trying to run for governor here in Texas, and one of the things he is really trying to get through is “No Teacher Left Behind.” He also mentions that one of the problems with society today are the heros we used to have (teachers, policemen, firemen, etc) are not treated with the respect they used to have, and still deserve.
From my own stint in education, and having loads of friends and family in the system, its really sad to see how many people are in administration and making boatloads of money compared to the people who are actually TEACHING. Should be the other way around, no?