Comparing Compensation: Military Servicemen vs. Professional Athletes

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Why do people that protect our country not get paid as much as people that entertain us? Are professional athletes really worth the big bucks? Professional athletes are paid correctly, they put in years’ worth of training and endure criticism every day.
Professional athletes work for every penny they get. Their whole life goes into training for that one sport, they take the risk of not even going pro. Only 0.18% of athletes make it pro (Grant 1). Military take the same risk of dying while serving, but almost anybody that wants to can go into the military. Athletes put themselves under great stress trying to be the best.
Athletes have a high percentage of getting injured at all ages. In just the last year “1.3 million children got injures …show more content…

The entertainment factor is enormous. People love to come home and just relax watching their favorite sports star play. Professional athletes are also role models. Kids look up to them; they want to be just like them and it gives kids something to work for. Athletes take the time out of their training schedule to go to children’s hospitals, people who have a serious illness, or just somebody that looks up to them.
“Almost 1.4 million people serve in the military”, where only 282 thousand people play some type of pro sport (Person 1). If we paid the military even the same amount, it would take 5 times more. A higher amount of people in the military is not surprising. Anybody growing up, that wants to be, can be in the military. They don’t have to deal with criticism and the stress of performing in front of millions of people.
Military people don’t have to worry about millions of people watching their every move. People complain about everything they do. Military people have to deal with death and thinking about it all the time, but having to listen to people and deal with it day after day give pro athletes the same thoughts. They may get all the money in the world but they throw away a normal

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