ThrottleJockey
Shooter
This argument is old and sophomoric. They don't do it for ME they do it for themselves, a paycheck, etc. They do it knowing the risk and the pay going into it. It is a choice they make since no one ever forced them to do it. I mean this is like saying I drive a truck for YOU so you can have food and other goods at market and I should get paid for it by tax payers even after I retire because of all the risk I take and the time I'm away from my family. BS I drive a truck to pay my bills. If I want a retirement fund I get to take it out of the pay I receive while I work (less than an LEO BTW). It's called budgeting and living within ones means. BTW, if you've got it, a truck brought it. So where's my money? I risk life and limb from the 80%+ of the people using the roads that lack the experience and skills do drive, from the weather, from having to park in unsafe areas with no protection because the state I'm in won't let me have any, from the cold or heat because I'm not allowed to idle my engine when I take my gov. mandated rest period...........I can't believe what I am reading here.
Whether they are police, fire, or military these people put their lives on the line every day for YOU. And they do it at a less than stellar pay level.
If these folks have a pension plan that is taxpayer funded it is usually part of a collective bargaining agreement, a contract. Something else was given up in order to receive pension benefits, such as a living wage.
Would you still complain if we took away the pensions and just raised their wages so that they could contribute on their own?
Like it or not, every time you buy something you are contributing to someone's pension. Buy a car, pay your utilities, buy groceries, make your house payment....some of that money is going towards someone's pension. It is just not called a 'tax'. But you are still paying for it.
I choose this job knowing the risk going in. I choose it knowing what I will earn going in. No one forces me to do it. I do it for a paycheck. I do it so you can have things, EVERYTHING you have came on a truck, maybe mine. seriously, find an argument that isn't PURE BS. I can't wait until Mitch is done with the teachers union so we can get good teachers paid properly for the work they do, then maybe he'll go after the unions you mentioned so that we can get the GOOD cops paid properly and the rest stuck out with the trash on minimum wage. I see no reason that the best cops, teachers, firefighters, etc shouldn't be paid like rock stars or NBA players with million dollar contracts that they negotiate individually. At the same time I see no reason that the worst among their ranks should be paid the same, but rather should sit on the bench and get crumbs or find a different line of work.
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