Why is it that elected officials, fire fighters, cops

[Beachnutt]

are always referred to as someone who serves or served ?
They do get the best benefits, healthcare, pay, time off, retirement etc.. at the expense of the working taxpayers, are they serving or being served ?
A nurse, a School teacher, a trucker, all serve too so let's just say we all serve.

Got that off my chest.....

[empedocles]

1. police and firefighters tend to have more down time than nurses, teachers,

and truckers.

Just sayin'

[Mr.Bill]

2. I've always thought the same.

It's a job, they get compensated for it, they can quit whenever they like. Case closed.

[we can do it]

17. Like all the firefighters "just quit" instead of going into the buildings on 9/11?

[Mr.Bill]

18. Where did I say that? n/t

[we can do it]

20. You said firefighters can just quit anytime. You can't just walk out.

[Mr.Bill]

21. Maybe not while on duty, neither can a nurse.

But I know police and firefighters who quit the job because they wanted to do something else. Nurses, too. It's not like the military.

[we can do it]

23. Ummmm " they can quit whenever they like" who said that?

Let’s not diss nurses. No one becomes a nurse or firefighter because they are cake jobs. Both are driven to serve. How often do you see either of professions abusing others?

[Mr.Bill]

25. I agree. It's a calling. My stepdaughter

is the fourth generation RN in her family. My wife is a retired RN. My brother in law is a retired firefighter/EMT. But those jobs are not for everyone. Some decide they don't like it and move onto something else. And they are free to do so.

[Skittles]

30. a coworker of mine in IT

decided to become a cop....went through all the training but the very first time he had to pull out his gun and make that split-second decision, he was done, he quit and went back to IT.....

[Beachnutt]

31. A friend of mine tried driving a truck

and he took one long trip cross country away from his family for a few weeks and had to take two fully loaded trailers grossing 80,000 lbs down an 8% grade up in Washington state and when he got back home he quit and went back to being a security guard...
Traffic and the mountains scared the hell out of him.

[Skittles]

32. OMG GIVE IT UP

YOU NEVER SERVED, JUST LEAVE IT AT THAT

[Beachnutt]

33. Actually I did serve in the United States Marine Corp

back when Jimmy Carter was President.
primary mos 0311 infantry.
Have a great day....

[2naSalit]

3. Because we are public servants...

Military, NPS, any federal agency for certain. And it really depends on what your pay grade is as to how good the benes are.

Yes, tax payers fund these government entities, because self government and all, which employ the servants and they have to pay them something.

The reason these are all classified as "Public Sector" jobs means that they exist to conduct the People's business, and it takes quite a workforce to get it all done, and there have to be labor rules.

Would you work, without pay, at a very demanding and thankless job to keep the People's business running and which requires knowledge and skill, thus education, for nothing or a pittance?

Or would you rather it was all corporations who owned and operated all of it, abused their workers and ignored laws protecting the workers? Like Amazon, for instance.
Can you imagine if all the national parks were run by Disney? And the military was owned and run by the kochs?

It takes a lot of costly education or working your way up to any position that has great perks/benes.

I don't get what your complaint is about, if it's about public sector workers having appropriate pay and benefits, what's wrong with that?

[Beachnutt]

5. I disagree totally...

Military people serve, politicians, cops etc. get served.
IMO.

[2naSalit]

7. Hmmm....

That's too bad.

[we can do it]

8. Retired firefighter paramedic here - this post is offensive.

Got that off my chest.

[Beachnutt]

12. Sorry, don't mean to offend anyone..

[we can do it]

15. What exactly did you expect? Delete this piece of crap. Give us a break.

[Skittles]

22. agreed

[Skittles]

14. THANK YOU

there isn't ANY amount of money in the world you could have paid me to be a firefighter so NO I don't compare them to say, being a garbage collector or a dog catcher......WTF

[2naSalit]

28. +1

[we can do it]

24. You are correct- and we serve whiners along with everyone else.

[Beachnutt]

26. So do nurses, school teachers and truck drivers..

[2naSalit]

27. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++!!

[Karadeniz]

4. Yep! Something else I've noticed: we can't paint those stereotypes with the same brush. I don't

need to give examples of how cowardly, judgmental, lying, etc. many policemen and departments are. We read the damage they do practically every day. What we don't hear about are firemen who help certain preferred colors first. Good lord, we see firemen giving oxygen to cats and plotting out how to rescue the last occupant, a dog. We see patience during rescues, not punching someone out to make him easier to manage. Firemen don't have time to check police records. They have more vital work to do than act cocky and establish superiority.

I think there's something to a person's character, when pondering which helpful profession to pursue, that prods a person to choose firefighting.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

29. A guy I knew since I was a kid

Was a emt/ firefighter. He told me stories.
God awful stories. Scary stories,ironic stories,funny stories. Its a tough job. One I am sure I would fail at my cptsd alone would make me useless.

So I have nothing but gratefulness and awe for firefighters,emts and nurses. Thankful for them all.

Cops not to much.


However ,the ones that have empathy and try to help I very much appreciate them too. I have reasons for why I feel wary about cops. And I know not all cops are bastards.


But some really are bastards.

Thankful for military too.

My father was military he also was horribly abusive. I am not thankful for him.

And I am not thankful for bullies no matter what thier job is.

[Skittles]

6. because they are paid by we the people

to serve we the people

[Beachnutt]

10. Oh, that explains it....

The city garbage man serves too, and the the litter crews and road repair workers and the dog catcher and the city maintenance workers, city and county snow plow drivers, bus drivers, and on and on...

[Skittles]

13. I notice you didn't include military

why is that?

because being in the military, being a cop, being a fireman is nothing like a "regular" job

[Beachnutt]

16. Military do serve this country,

the military folks can't just up and leave anytime they want, politicians cops etc.. can quit anytime they want too, just like the nurses, school teachers and truckdrivers that work just as hard or harder than most government employees and many more hours with less pay and benefits.

I know this is a controversial subject for some and I am sorry if I offend anyone.
I worked my whole life and really don't recall ever being served, but I guess thats the blue collar life.

[Elessar Zappa]

9. I don't know where you live but around here

cops and especially fire fighters are underpaid.

[Beachnutt]

11. so are nurses, school teachers and truck drivers..

[Mr.Bill]

19. Not where I live.

They are very well paid here and have a great pension plan.