how much do we spend on heroes?
So, they risk their lives and save our asses. But what’s the price tag? If they have a couple extra ladder trucks laying around to fly flags with, how much does that cost? Or, if those aren’t extra, how long does it take to get that thing down if my house starts burning? Remember, a flag can’t touch the ground or you have to burn it. And burning that thing requires a pretty huge fireplace. And what’s a three story flag cost anyway? The street was lined with cop cars, are we paying officers overtime to attend a funeral? Or are they off duty? And if off duty, are they allowed to borrow cruisers? Again, they risk their lives. And they have a strong union that gets them pay raises while Sean’s daughters art and music classes are cut out of the budget. Would a dead hero trade a giant flag for the next generation’s education?
LOL, you haven’t even touched the cost of the live ones. How many soldiers are in Iraq at how much are they paid? Probably at least 20k for grunts, and going up from there. One guy dying – hey – that’s savings of 10k that year, a flag is cheap at that rate.
We haven’t even talked about the tanks, the military projects, etc. The cost of honoring the heroes is probably a drop in the bucket compared to the costs of the actual war.
Those officers were most certainly paid, dunno if it would be overtime though. Do you not want them to be able to pay for their children-raising expenses? Being a cop is a tough job (though not this one), if you pay ‘em too little, you might not get people, or you might not get good people. Do you want the law enforced by a bunch of people who cut corners (or cut corners more than the current ones?)
Comment by Belcat — June 9, 2010 @ 11:15 am
I think if I was a fireman I’d take all the gold I could pocket from burning houses. If I came across it while looking for people. Would that be stealing or salvaging?
Comment by Rolston — June 9, 2010 @ 11:18 pm
Still stealing. You don’t know; the gold could make it (likely would, unless it’s an inferno), and people living there could could be alive and out of the fire. So then they would eventually come back and keep anything that made it.
Some people I know have been through fires, and the worse sometimes is the smoke damage. So gold would definitely make it.
This also ignores the fact you would be wasting time going after gold, when you are hired to save people, and to do so, can’t waste any time…
Comment by Belcat — June 11, 2010 @ 9:51 am
Wow, too bad the teachers don’t have a strong union to fight for their people. Oh, wait…
Average soldier salary is 40K/yr but cost to keep a soldier in Iraq probably means the government pays at least 80K a year for that. Private citizens on DoD contracts (like MPs) easily make 6 figures tax free. They also get killed, sometimes.
Rolston, I can totally see you in a burning building with your metal detector, lurking in the smoky corners.
Comment by Lyle_S — June 11, 2010 @ 8:26 pm
Maybe I could get a permission slip from the city, or maybe my Junk Gatherer badge will allow me to enter burning houses and salvage what I can.
Comment by Rolston — June 12, 2010 @ 11:54 pm