Overpaid Reality Stars vs American Heroes

[nightmare]

Why do our true american heroes get paid so poorly & overrated reality 'stars' get stacks of cash for doing absolutely nothing to help our society?


I understand this is america & our culture has been driven by media & obsessed with celebrities since the invention of radio, and later television\movies. It is a big part of being a kid to imagine yourself as a 'movie star' or 'sports hero', but has this all gone too far? With the invention of the Real World, Jersey Shore, Survivor, the Bachelor, the Kardashians & the Hills- more & more kids are becoming obsessed with people who do nothing to help society. These people command appearance fees & land endorsement deals worth thousands (in some cases, millions). But why? Because the get drunk on tv, cause high school drama\fights or compete in a tournaments to get dumped in front of a national audience?


All the while the true idols & heroes of america get paid shit while busting their ass to make this country a better place. Teachers spend their life trying to educate the future generation of this country. Firefighters & policemen risk their life to unsure the saftey of us & our children. The infantry of our military forces put their life on the line every day in hostile territory so we can be safe. They all sacrifice time away from their own families to help ensure the saftey & growth of our nation. What do they get paid in return? A handshake, salute, hugs, thank you letters & small paychecks that barely pay the bills.

How is it that Kim Kardashian makes more money in a month than most of our soldiers make in a year? How does someone from the jersey shore make more than a firefighter or teacher? Why do farmers spend weeks out of the year tending crops to feed our kids& make enough $ to survive\replant- but freakin Heidi Montag can blow thousands of $ on plastic surgery?



Does this sit well with anyone else here? Does it piss you off our country lets this happen? What are some of your opinions?

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

Absolutely. I wouldn't think twice about it if every actor who appeared in a movie who makes over $1mil, or every shitty reality star, or every shitty mainstream musician had to give up a total of 50% of their paychecks to help pay for the public workers in this country, including teachers, firefighters, and road crews.

I went off on a rage on Twitter the other day about Kim Kardashian making at least a million dollars putting in literally zero effort to appear in fucking "Disaster Movie" while teachers in this country struggle to make $35k a year, and people shit all over them.

 

[nightmare]

Exactly Mozz.

In addition to that, how many hundreds of thousands of dollars do celebs spend on multiple cars that will just sit in the garage? If 4 or 5 celebrities sold just one of their vehicles- they could single handedly help families to get off the street or get clean clothes\food for the homeless.

It furiates me to see this lady @ 7-11 by my house every day. Her husband died & she lost her home of 22yrs all because she couldnt aford the last 3 mortgage payments & the bank took it for auction. So she sits there- right across from a BMW dealership & she gets spit on\yelled at all the time. I only make about $21,000 a year(can barely get by most months) but every week i cash my check & give the lady $10-15 bucks out of my pocket. Its not much, but its more than the arrogant pricks driving buy making 6 figure salaries can even think to contribute.

fucking sad how arrogant\selfish the rich can be

 

[Captain Jive]

I agree. As a former Infantryman, I can say that I wasn't rolling in the money after I was done getting shot at for 18 straight months. I had a very similar discussion with my brother about this exact topic a few days ago. It's like you said, the people out there busting their asses to make this country a better place, all the way from teachers to cops to military, don't make shit unless they are in a high up position in their career field. But that's only the top 2 or 3 percent of them. You can take any douchebag on Jersey Shore and for one season, they will make more money than an entire school's worth of teachers will.

Me and my brother were talking about how it's ridiculous that pro athletes make as much money they do, but he brought up a good point, if they got paid less, then all that extra money would just go to the owner, and it's very unlikely that he's going to give away 50 million of his own dollars every year. It would be amazing if they did that, but they won't. Even if they did, it would be impossible to convince ALL of the owners to do it, which would result in all the best players going to the teams that will pay them the most. So the generous owner wouldn't have good players, which would mean the team isn't good, which would mean not many fans going to the games or buying merchandise, which would mean the team would go bankrupt, which would mean he isn't giving away his money anymore.

It's just the way the world works. Society, in general, cares about being entertained, they don't care about the problems that do not directly effect them. Maybe I shouldn't say they don't care, but it's definitely not on the forefront of their mind. Take a look at holidays for example, memorial day is supposed to be about remembering those that served this country, but it's about cookouts and swimming.

 

[Calderownz]

A few things come to mind when thinking about this. Truthfully, this is something that the media takes advantage of, but that we allow. We simply seem too worried about shows than a showing of courage or dedication on an honest level.

People are concerned with superstars. I don't really understand it. A prime example of this was the Kanye West/Taylor Swift incident. I couldn't have cared less. Big fucking deal. It was a VMA. It wasn't even a Grammy, much less the Medal Of Honor.

Yes, she worked for it. Yes, it must have been embarrassing. Yes, he should have known better.

Did the world end? According to sites like PopEater, it sure did.

That's also a part of the problem. Kids would rather report on gossip than on current events or world news. They don't won't to report the news, they want to report the speculation.

A recent poll (I don't have the link, so you can take me at face value with this) asked kids under the age of 15 what they most wanted to be when they grow up. A LARGE portion of those polled simply said, "Famous."

They didn't say a singer or an actor. Just the idea of being famous was enough. Not even rich. Famous.

While teachers get paid in bratty, little kids and peanuts, while our military is living paycheck to paycheck, Snooki is getting paid to fuck random guys and shop for stupid hats. Obviously, something is wrong with that.

But as a people, we have to realize who is to blame here. It's not the people getting paid in either situation. It's not even us, for not complaining enough, though he do take a role in the situation. It's the "companies" that pay them.

The government pays these people that because they are not stopped from doing that. At least Snookie is getting paid what she is worth. She makes MTV money. So, in turn, she gets paid accordingly. I wish that wasn't the case, but it is.

Our military, for example, isn't handled the same way. You can only blame the government. But, the people that let this happen have to take partial blame.

 

[Dark Horse]

Im right on the same page as you guys here. My main bone to pick is with Jersey Shore. How are a bunch of momo's like that getting paid ridiculous amounts of money, simply TO BE a bunch of stupid momo's? Meanwhile people who actually deserve to be making some serious money are dumped on all the time. It just goes to show you what this country values now. It's not teachers, it's not police or firemen, and unfortunately it's not our military either. It's fake people, with fake tans, roided out bodies, too much drama, no real responsibility, no concept of decency, no class, no intelligence, and bad habits. It pains me physically to think that people actually believe that Pauly D, Snookie, and the gang are "cool" and that that's the way to be. It pains me physically to think that that's what people are out there emulating, thinking it is cool. To make it worse, in the process, these people have NO SKILLS of any kind that add to anything in our society. If Snookie was working at McDonalds at least she would be providing a service somewhere, instead she's a two way trick with bad makeup, who drinks too much, and constantly exposes to anyone with a brain what a classless and useless pile of artificial shit she is, and people eat it up.

Kim Kardashian, here's another useless pile that is making more money than 50 million of her would be worth. What did she do that was so great? OH Yeah, she banged a few black guys and made a sextape. Nice contribution. Splooges all over the world are singing your praises. Thanks for making a difference. Meanwhile millions of people who actually make a difference in the world and in peoples lives are scraping to get by, but she's got a thick ass so that's all that matters right?

I am going to introduce to you what will probably be a new word for you.

Stupiditarded. That's what all this shit is. Stupiditarded. I'm all through.

 

[Janice]

You know why? Because children are too interested in what song Glee is going to perform or the next guy one of the Jersey Shore bimbo's are going to sleep with. It is sad because people expect this generation to just know to respect the ones who keep them from having to worry about waking up to the sound of another stretch of land getting bombed or gunshots all around their neighborhood. And to be honest with you? I almost blame their parents more than I blame them.

I understand they have bills and the crash of the economy to worry about but come on people! Maybe educate your children just a teeny tiny bit? It's their responsibility, just like changing their diapers and telling them not to run with scissors. It might not be so obvious and maybe parenting books won't tell you this but has anyone heard of common sense? Sometimes I see it as their fear of being seen as lame or having their kids hate them but I'll assure anyone that they won't when he or she actually knows who Jefferson Davis or Abraham Lincoln are and their impact on the country they live in right now.

People still live at the few out there who say watching too much television "brainwashes you" but it may as well be doing just that. Kids are more gullible than anyone, they're going to believe the message a television show passes on or that they can just get drunk, have sex and party a club each and every day and still be wearing thousand dollar jewelery and owning some fancy schmancy car. That is just what done Reality television show is doing to impressionable tweens and teens and it'll never stop, it's going to get worse for all we know. I'm not saying you should throw your television out your window right this second and watch it smash to pieces on the ground below but I do start to wonder if the theory really is something to think about. And not something to stop, laugh at and then walk away from like you never even heard the person.

How about we look at the profession known as being a doctor. We all know the crap they go through day in and day out and that they probably work more hours than some of us will ever work even on the busiest day. But they're still yelled at, disrespected and ultimately treated like they're lower on the food chain than the patient they're attending too. And then reports come out saying that in the coming years, in a lot of different medical fields, numbers are going to drop and hospitals are going to be out of luck because no child tells their loving and over protective parents that they want to be a surgeon or a pediatrician when they're older! They say they want to be a movie star, a singer, a dancer, famous, or any of that stuff. And with that, I will not be baffled by the fact that in ten years, homelessness rates will have gone through the roof because none of those kids are going to go anywhere! Kids need to stop looking up to Snooki and Pauly D and start looking up to people like Barack Obama or the armed forces or the millions of doctors residing in the US. Pick one, because being the next Snooki is not going to get anybody anywhere.

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

You know why? Because children are too interested in what song Glee is going to perform or the next guy one of the Jersey Shore bimbo's are going to sleep with. It is sad because people expect this generation to just know to respect the ones who keep them from having to worry about waking up to the sound of another stretch of land getting bombed or gunshots all around their neighborhood. And to be honest with you? I almost blame their parents more than I blame them.

You know, I don't mind the people on Glee. I don't mind actual actors, though I do have a problem with the amount of money they make. There is no convincing me that the amount of effort that goes into acting in a TV show or movie offsets the amount of money they make. But even so, I don't mind them. They use actual talent to provide their product.

What REALLY grinds my shit, is the Kim Kardashians, and the Paris Hiltons, and the Jersey Shores, and the bullshit like that -- people putting in zero effort to receive a fat paycheck and live comfortably for the rest of their lives, while, like you, others, and I have said, people who actually DO make a difference are struggling to get by.

But hey. Thirty million people want to spend 20 bucks to watch "______ Movie" from the Friedberg and Seltzer shit-factory. It's fucking pathetic.

 

[Janice]

You know, I don't mind the people on Glee. I don't mind actual actors, though I do have a problem with the amount of money they make. There is no convincing me that the amount of effort that goes into acting in a TV show or movie offsets the amount of money they make. But even so, I don't mind them. They use actual talent to provide their product.

Yeah, I don't think that was very well said by me and let me expand just a little bit. I think what annoys me is the fact these teens all over North America are worshiping these fictional characters, knowing everything from their real middle name to their hometown to their favorite color and it just bugs me that instead of spending that time learning about the actual heroes of this country, they'd much rather talk to all their little friends about how one character is going out with the next and how sad they were and all that jazz. It is almost strangely abnormal for people to get this connected to characters that were made up by a director who was probably given the idea by his mom or something. Part of me wonders that if somebody went to Iraq or any of the other many wars going on right now and filmed what the soldiers are doing for us and literally televised and advertised it around the globe, if kids would actually start respecting their profession and maybe even adults too. It is sad because we're playing to their needs and doing stuff for them so they don't have to get off their asses and learn themselves but I feel for this generation, it is going to be the only way.

 

[ABMorales787]

Simply put stupid people love to watch stupider people. And sadly, smart people capitalize on it. The smart people being TV and movie producers and such. Paparazzi's make their living by looking every flaw in a famous person and exploiting it. Wait a minute, why should I care about this? I don't know, but it seems general America in fact does care. Maybe it's because we get to escape our own lives and live the lives of others for a bit. Sadly, we can't see what our heroes in the army do, but we can see what those jackasses in Jersey are up to.

It's like us wrestling fan's with wrestling. We wish we could live their lives. We wish we could be a John Cena or a AJ Styles or an Undertaker. Because it's presented to us and we like it. Not the case with our Armed Forces though. Closest thing we have to living their lives and feeling for them is... Modern Warfare 2 and other FPS games and any war movie based on real life.

 

[nightmare]

celebrities arent the only ones to blame for this, it also includes the executives\studios that see the popularity train coming & cant wait to fill their wallets with the exposure that comes with obsession.


i posted this thread based on a story on the radio i heard the other morning. she called in pissed bc the dj was talking bout how much the kardashians made. so it got me thinking & i made the thread.


coco pointed out to me that celebs arent the only ones wothy of disdain. he's right. pro atheletes, government officials, executives, etc. there are a hell of alot of people who make tons of cash for doing little to actually help others\make the planet better. i could give a fuck less about being famous, unless it was for doing something worthwhile. but ****ting around 'the shore' or being the daughter of a billionaire definately shouldnt be regarded as worthwhile.


kids used to want to be firemen, cops, pilots, & doctors. our culture (esp america) has become so obsessed with celebrity status, that our kids want to be paris hilton & britney spears.

anyone else have an opinion on people that get way overpaid for their job?