[quote=jficquette][quote=jpinpb]Just curious, how many of you would be willing to take a 20% cut in your pay? And how many of you risk your lives in your job?[/quote]
Running speed traps is very dangerous. Also sitting in firehouses for 3 days a week watching TV is scary too. BTW, why do firemen take their fire trucks to Vons to go shopping? Why can’t they take private vehicles?
Military careers are dangerous but don’t command near the pay and benefits. Why do Cops and Fireman make more then their counterparts in the military?[/quote]
Firefighters take their fire engines to Vons because they are **always on duty** 24/7. There are no breaks of any sort — no lunch breaks, no dinner breaks, no bathroom breaks, etc. If they are in the grocery store (or in the shower, or on the toilet, or eating dinner, etc.) and a call comes in, they have to leave what they are doing and respond to the call. You can’t do that in a private vehicle.
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As for the comparison with military personnel, I personally think military personnel are very much underpaid. If we paid them what they are actually worth, we might think twice about engaging in unnecessary wars around the world (usually for the benefit of private interests, BTW).
Still, military personnel who engage in dangerous jobs do actually get compensated fairly well. They also get other benefits like housing, free medical care, insurance, military discounts (at the PX, for instance) that cops and firefighters don’t get.
That being said, I would NEVER say that our military personnel are overcompensated. They need to make much more.
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BTW, can we please stop with the “sitting in the firehouse” and “eating doughnuts/running speed traps” nonsense (BTW, you DO realize that many/most officer fatalities occur during traffic stops, don’t you?). It really shows how ignorant people are about what cops and firefighters really do.
