That “auction of sorts” would be the normal market mechanism, right? There are death rates that vary between professions now, with risks priced into the prevailing market wage for those professions. I don’t see why soldiery should be different.
Well, yeah, nothing special. It’s just that the government doesn’t usually try to use smart mechanisms in deciding what to pay people (soldiers) so unless we’re talking about a private army, then you gotta specify that you pay them right.
That’s why a contractor in Iraq today makes about $200,000/yr for a job that would pay $70,000/yr in the US. (A soldier makes, I think, a median of something like $40,000/yr.)
That “auction of sorts” would be the normal market mechanism, right? There are death rates that vary between professions now, with risks priced into the prevailing market wage for those professions. I don’t see why soldiery should be different.
Well, yeah, nothing special. It’s just that the government doesn’t usually try to use smart mechanisms in deciding what to pay people (soldiers) so unless we’re talking about a private army, then you gotta specify that you pay them right.
That’s why a contractor in Iraq today makes about $200,000/yr for a job that would pay $70,000/yr in the US. (A soldier makes, I think, a median of something like $40,000/yr.)