I don't understand how a person wearing a helmet and throwing a football around gets payed more than a soldier wearing a helmet and is fighting for our country. The average private (the lowest rank in the army) in the U.S. army gets payed $18,194. That might seem like a lot but let's see the average pay for a football player in the NFL. Itis $405,000. Even if the player doesn't play he gets that amount of money. That means the average football player gets payed $386,806 more than a private in the army. In my opinion that’s insane. Even if a soldier pulled a 24 hour guard shift he would make $4.77. Thats less than minimum wage and I think a soldier should get paid more per hour then a bus boy.
Soldiers are the people who willingly risk their lives to preserve ours. These soldiers get state of the art equipment to fight and survive. The humvee (A type of Jeep) that most troops move around in costs $17,000 so the soldier gets paid in equipment along with money. If you count up the amount they get payed in equipment and their salary it comes to a total of $36,123.70. (I spent so long trying to find that number, I had to google all of the equipment that a soldier carries and how much each costed then add it all up, thats how important it is to me.) And that’s only for a private. So the soldiers pay is low but the equipment that he/she uses to make sure that he/she gets that pay is high.
Imagine coming back from a long deployment.
Your friends have died.
Your life has been changed.
Your house is foreclosed and your family is living on the streets or with family.
That is reality for some troops. With a pay of $18,194 they are struggling to survive. And I think that it's unacceptable that the people who fight for our country are struggling to survive in our country. This is not true for every soldier a lot of them come back to a house like how they left it.

The soldiers pay is so bad that when the soldiers return they have to instantly find a job that will support their family. There is an increasing amount of soldiers getting discharged. And if the soldier doesn't get an honorable discharge the soldier doesn't get all of the benefits. He would, how ever, have got some benefits of being a veteran. Because there is more soldiers getting discharged they will not have enough money to survive . The cost of groceries one week is about $289 that means that on a soldier's salary and if he doesn't get the discounts for a retired vet, or a vet who had been honorably discharged. He will only be able to withstain his family for 6 weeks. So in six weeks he will have to find a job and if he got a dishonorable discharge it a lot harder to find a job with the a discharge under his belt. NPR just did a report on this topic in the program npr said that “being dishonorably discharged is like a life sentence. you don't get the benefits of a vet with say an honorable discharge so because more and more of our soldiers are getting dishonorably discharged they can't support their family or themselves.”
The government is supposed to send $100,000 to the family of a deceased soldiers. This is supposed to cover the amount of costs for the funeral and the travel cost. Unfortunately the government has not been able to cover the cost. So, on top of all of the grief, pain, and sorrow, that comes from losing a family member they have to pay for it out of their pockets which will add to the stress of losing a family member.
Can you live in a world where the soldiers that fight for our country and die for our country are treated with less respect than a famous celebrity? Can you live in a world where the soldiers who walk down the street are pitied? Can you live in a democracy that can't afford to pay the family’s of a deceased soldier? The reality is that this is happening all around the U.S. and its is really affecting soldiers and people who are in the armed forces. A soldier risks more than a football player or a movie star. So why shouldn't the the soldier get paid at least as much?