Edited

Firefighters are a form of corporate socialist welfare. They are a socialist institution whose salaries and benefits are fixed because of their political power and the fact that people like most of the CZ posters worship them as Gods. In the past getting such a job was an usually an act of nepotism, perhaps today with more scrutiny that is less likely, minorities were always discriminated.

All the Republicans and Libertarians here always complain about the government being inefficient and costly , about how being taxed for social programs is a form of fascism. Yet here you folks are suddenly in total support of the police and fireman.
Its irrational and I have always said politics is based on ones personality not logic. This is further proof. UNless you are suffering from Stockholm syndrome.

Salaries should be based on SUPPLY AND DEMAND.That is called CAPITALISM in case you folks dont know. If you dont believe in that YOU ARE COMMUNISTS. ADMIT IT!

We should put all the firemens jobs up for open bidding and give amnesty to any illegal who would take it and see what the salary would be then. Probably about 20k a year not 200k and without the pension.
And it cant be that physically hard as women now do it, though in extreme cases not as well as some 200lb guy can of course.



When I lived in Berkeley,ca my neighbor was a young guy who had just graduated Berkeley university with a degree in Mathematics and he was about to become a Math professor in some University for a salary that was less than a grocery clerk. No wonder it was so low since they had to pay those super special firefighter 200k or they wouldnt show up for work to sleep all day.
Firefighters are no more entitled to 200k than CEOs are entitled to 250million dollar retirement packages.
The PEOPLE end up paying for both.



The below post is from your link. A three week vacation every 10 days and a millionaires retirement, and the PEOPLE foot the bill. Its nothing less than EXTORTION.

The proof that I am right is that Vallejo,ca is going broke.


Posted by: | October 25, 2005 at 04:02 PM

I'll have to echo Bruce's comments. In fact I'll go him one better. The fireguys should thank their lucky stars that illegal aliens haven't infiltrated their profession and undercut their jobs by doing the same job for 20k/year salary. After all, as one congressional candidate stated "they're here so we might as well give them benefits".



Posted by: OCFA E67 | October 25, 2005 at 05:36 PM

OK, OK. Lets just be truthful here.

Firefighters are not underpaid, witness the FACT that there will be two openings and 5,000 applicants.

So working as a firefighter is a good job and is desireable to many people.

I'm not eager to do that kind of work but heck, they work only about 110 days a year, probably less (not including overtime, of course). What is it? 10 days on, 20 days off? I know that's the ratio, I might be wrong about the specifics. Two or three weeks vacation.

So you got a bunch of guys who though they have to be available 24x7 while on duty get AT LEAST 265 days off a year to pursue other interests. Some are in law school. Many have vacation homes. Lots go boating, fishing, skiing, etc.

As to the amount the firefighters make, there is a lot of overtime. That's probably OK since with the excellent retirement benefits we really don't want to hire more firefighters. It's probably cheaper to pay overtime.

Good jobs. Pretty attractive pay. Gold plated benefits. Early retirement, excellent pension. It's great.

No reason to feel sorry for firefighters. There aren't that many fires, and there isn't that much work.

You guys should stop complaining. It's unseemly.