What People Earn

Okay, here goes my annual rant over Parade magazine's article about what people earn per year. What is wrong with this picture? What the hell is wrong with this country when people earn the following salaries?

Kobe Bryant: $15.9 million--a Sgt. in the Marine Corps: $22,000
Angelina Jolie: $30 million--a high school librarian: $50,300
Howard Stern: $31 million--a registered nurse: $45,000
Terry Semel (Chairman/CEO, Yahoo!): $120 million--a police detective: $45,800
Alex Rodriguez: $25 million--a caregiver: $13,000
Dan Brown (author of DaVinci Code): $76.5 million--a firefighter: $42,600
Dakota Fanning: $15 million--an ER technician: $23,000
Jennifer Aniston: $18.5 million--a school secretary: $24,000
John J. Mack (CEO, Morgan Stanley): $11.5 million--an electrician: $45,200
Sean Combs: $36 million--a respiratory therapist: $40,000
Reese Witherspoon: $30 million--a dairy farmer: $22,600
Richard Wagoner (GM chairman/CEO): $4.8 million--a lab technician: $27,000

MOST, if not all, of the people on the left side of the list don't really work for a living--at least not if you compare them to the people on the right! The people on the right are who keep this country going--they are the backbone of this nation. It is a terrible shame when someone who PLAYS A GAME or PLAYS AT MAKE BELIEVE makes more money--MUCH, MUCH more money--than someone who saves lives. We have really screwed-up priorities.