I much prefer swimming when there's a lifeguard on duty to supervise the safety of swimmers.
Definitely.  Pools and Oceans are places where medical attention and rescue efforts have to be given quickly.
Yes and lifeguards are strong swimmers and are trained in CPR.
It's a shame that often they don't get paid enough for what they do.  It seems that we don't really value safety if we don't pay them enough to live.
Yeah it's true. Especially when sometimes they even help with mountain rescues and EMS services.
It's even worse when they get mangled in legal issues.  One lifeguard actually got fired for saving the life of a swimmer who wasn't a customer of the hotel next to the beach.
That's pretty crazy! But a lot of people have a lack of education about water safety. 
Hence the necessity for lifeguards and why they shouldn't be burdened and hassled with weird corporate rules about whose life gets saved at what beach.
I definitely agree. The conditions that lead to drowning are called the drowning chain and which links each event to the actual drowning.
Lifeguards definitely have to know those signs in order to effectively save the life of a potential drowing victim