I was on Facebook the other day, and I saw a status update that stated "A football player earns £250,000 a week, a soldier earns £15,000 a year. If a footballer gets flicked in the leg he falls over screaming, a soldier gets his arm blown off and carries on. A footballer lets us down every year, a soldier makes us proud everyday. Repost if you think soldiers should get paid a lot more than footballers". Now I don't normally pay attention to these chain messages, but this one made me think. Whilst I agree that footballers are overpaid for what they do, how could soldiers be paid more? As far as I understand, footballers make a lot of their money due to high levels of sponsorship, which is not realistically available for soldiers as the only people that would see this advertising are the enemy (who are quite clearly not a target audience, [pun intended]). Also to receive similar salaries war would have to be televised, or at least turned into a spectator sport, where people could turn up to cheer on the favourite soldiers. This has happened in human history, as the Gladiators were the celebrities of the Romans, famed for their combat skills. But this can't be what people want today.
There must be an easier way for soldiers to earn more money. Since 2008, it is estimated that over 60,000,000 copies of the famous first person shooter "Call of Duty" have been sold. If we assume each retailed for £40 (or the equivalent in other countries), over £2,400,000,000 has been spent on C.O.D alone. This doesn't take into account any of the DLC (downloadable content). That is just one franchise of many. There are so many games that encourage us to take to the frontline and 'be a soldier'. Gears of War, Battlefield, Medal of Honour, Resistance, Killzone etc. If all of these franchises are earning similar amounts, then it shows people are willing to spend money on war simulators, but similarly people are willing to make money out of war simulation. Although war profiteering is not illegal, it is frowned upon, but it seems major game companies have found a way to mass market war to the youth of today!
You may wonder where this is leading, so I shall go ahead and tell you. I don't think these games should be banned, but a small charge should be added to the cost of the game. If £5 had been added to every C.O.D game that has been sold, over £300,000,000 would have been generated! That is a lot of money, and could go a long way to helping people affected by war. Now I am not sure if the person who had this as their status has donated money to military charities, to actively help change soldiers salaries, but like I said, it got me thinking. It would be so easy to help support these soldiers who are risking their lives, without having to do anything apart from to buy the game you were already going to buy! I feel this goes to show that a lot of small donations would eventually add up to a large amount of money, money that could be distributed to the people who have truly earned it!
PER
This is a very good point Mr Round, however, I say this without any figures or facts, but which war charities would be sponsored by the income, how could you choose? Which side is actually in the right and so would justify having the sponsorship? But that also raises the question, would those sales still be the same globally if a country or nation or group there of, for instance the allegiances between China, Russia & Pakistan...knew that they were directly financing their enemy's military force. How many more countries would ban such games (like Iran). And what sort of Global outcry would there be after all, it is mainly China where these technologies are built, where CDs are copied, computers/consoles were made. If they stopped production, well we can see how this could economically impact the country of origin, but could also damage any negotiations currently in place thus leading to much global agro. (a bit extreme, I realise). But yes to your point it would seriously help these fearless chaps that are out there for us.
ReplyDeleteKAS
Well - what if each country that sold the games could add, or not, the "soldier tax" and distribute it to their own charities? How many CODs/any other war games have been sold in the UK? - btw Paul - I am enjoying your blog! Aunty Rak x
ReplyDeleteEven if shops such as Game, Gamestation, and supermarkets that stock the game have a collection pot, or even ask if they would like to add £5 to their purchase, not necessarily forcing people to pay, but giving them the choice. This could be a way of helping to raise more money then the soldiers would otherwise be getting!
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