I really dislike this fairweather mentality among our public security and utility services. When you take taxpayer money to do a job, that job comes with certain responsibilities. In the case of police and prison guards, among those responsibilities is going into dangerous situations that could kill you. Or with utility workers, keeping the lights on the face of natural disasters disasters or even civil unrest.We hear quite a bit from cops about how they put their lives on the line for the community. Well nut up or shut up. In a civilized society cops who refuse to work during a national emergency should be hung for desertion. But I will be mollified with them just being fired for cause.snt
THIS. To the max.
When you join the military, least the US military, you are told of the unwritten "unlimited liability" clause in your contract. It is understood that you can be injured or killed in the performance of your duties. Among us, that's a given. And for my part, the hearing aids in the ears remind me of that clause.
Far as military pay goes, at the lower ranks who make up the vast majority of those who go into harm's way, the pay is too low for what they are expected to do as a matter of course. Pay at upper ranks is good, but relatively few military people above the rank of major/lieutenant commander go into harm's way. Having said that, military pensions are not that high. We also know that going in. But the pension also comes with base shopping privileges and very cheap medical insurance that beats anything downtown. To get a military pension of $100,000/year you'd have to have at least one star and well over 30 years on active duty. There is the possibility of getting disability compensation from the Veterans' Administration, but normally what happens is the amount of the disability payment is deducted from your pre-tax military pension payment, and you get the disability tax-free. But there are other benefits connected with getting the VA disability pay, both at the Federal and state levels.
I periodically check out TransparentCalifornia.com. Here you can find public employee salaries and pensions. In our town of maybe 30,000, most police officers'/firefighters' compensation is six figures. Many people who work for the city also pull down six figures, easy. But I don't believe a whole lot of the residents here make six-figure salaries by themselves.
Same thing at the county level. Many county employees making over six figures. A certain number work at the county hospital and in the county health system, but many more are just administrators.
Look at the pensions, and you see more that turns the stomach. Tons of public employees getting six-figure pensions. One thing police/fire do to up that pension - work every minute of overtime possible that last year, and cash in all the vacation/sick leave. Pension in these cases based on last year's total compensation - regular pay, overtime, cashed-in vacation/sick leave. Oh, we military people's pension is a percentage of just our base pay. That's all.
So when I hear of our "brave" police/fire, I remember they are compensated far better, and will have far better pensions, than the vast majority of American servicemen and servicewomen who daily fight, and have fought for us, on battlefields all over. And by the time most police/fire are eligible for a pension they've been on desk duty for some time.
Utility workers - they get paid, they know the inherent dangers in the job. One reason people such absurdly high utility rates.
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