Mrs.PatsFanInVa

about the outrageous salaries that firefighters make or the outrageous pension some dude in your home state took home this year please take a moment to remember that the majority of all firefighters in The USA (70% to be exact) do the job for the exact salary of - nothing.

That's right - nothing!! Zero, Zip, Zilch, Nada.

Now that's outrageous!!

They go to school, they take classes, they get certified, they attend ongoing training throughout their employment, most of them also train as EMTs, again committing to attending ongoing training classes throughout their employment, they carry pagers and/radios at all times, they get up in the middle of the night repeatedly, they go out in sub-zero temperatures, they go out in the midst of record heat-waves, they teach fire-safety and first aid to your children, they inspect your grandma's nursing home several times a year, a couple of times a year they give up their own holiday to spit shine their fire engines and ambulances and lead the parades in your neighborhood. The rest of the time they get puked on, spit at, shot at, bled on, beat up and harassed, they run into burning building that you've just run out of, they risk their lives each and every time they're called upon. Occasionally they save someone's life, someone's furniture, someone's goldfish. Other times they help bring out the charred and broken bodies of small children and old women, after which they go home and beat up and puke on themselves, and they swear they're never going to do it again - but they do. Because someone's got to and it might as well be them.

There's a lot wrong with America - but there's a lot that's right with it, too.

In 2008, total paid employment in fire fighting occupations was about 365,600. Fire fighters held about 310,400 jobs, and first-line supervisors/managers of fire fighting and prevention workers held about 55,200. These employment figures include only paid career fire fighters—they do not cover volunteer fire fighters, who perform the same duties and may constitute the majority of fire fighters in a residential area. According to the U.S. Fire Administration, about 70 percent of fire companies were staffed entirely by volunteer fire fighters in 2007.

Fire Fighters

PatsWSB47

I grew up in a town that had several volunteer fire houses. I was actually surprised the first time I found out that fireman were paid in some places. the rescue squads were volunteer too. As a matter of fact, they are to this day. Hats off.

wistahpatsfan

They must have a lousy union!

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IcyPatriot

I have no problem with the money paid to police or fire people. the only irony I still don't understand is a police officer makes more money off duty at a bar or club or directing church traffic than they do getting shot at.

Real World

People in here really misunderstand what the issues are. The issues aren't cops or fireman. They're not teachers either. The issues are the policies that allow cops to make $200k+ in some cases. Situations like my city which has something like 30 people making over $100k per, the vast majority of which are cops and fireman. The issue is teachers who can't be fired even when they show up to work drunk, or make $60k a year to work 9 months, and then ***** when they're asked to chip in 12% of their healthcare costs. Those are the problems. If any of these specific issues didn't exist, and the government wasn't broke, then no one would care.

Oh, I almost forgot one. Massport employees collecting a fat check for $469k for the sick time they rolled over till retirement. Give me a ******* break. The $200+k a year pension this guy is going to collect sticks out too. These are the problems some of us are pointing out. Think about that pension payout. That guy collecting for 20 years amounts to what, $4 million? Does anyone in here think that the person in question came even remotely close to contributing that amount into the fund? Unsustainable is the problem.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897