Quote:
Originally Posted by jms62
(Post 738518)
Please, we are a bit too smart to fall for this patriotic bullshi<t. You gave up 20 years of your life because it was a career path you chose. Let's call a spade a spade here. By your postings here we can go all in at 1 to 10 that college was never a realistic option. The military however was a choice where unless you totally fuc<k up will continue to pay a salary and provide an obscene retirement. Your job wasn't going to get outsourced or eliminated due to downsizing regardless of how well you performed in it. It was a very safe choice. So you post on here about all "worthless" folks collecting unemploymemt. Some of these folks have paid their SUI for 20-30 years but they are considered "worthless" to you because they won't take a minimum wage job to replace their 6 figure salary and instead continue to search. You continually complain about our debt yet find no problem whatsoever with governement pensions... You find no problem with someone who serves in the military for 20 years and collects 50% of their last paycheck for the next 45 years. You are exactly what is wrong with the country. Unwilling to see anything outside of their circumstances. I got mine fuc>k everyone else.
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I, too, raised an eyebrow about Nascar's remark "I gave up 20 years of my life". As you say, the military is a choice - it's not a sentence. However, the one thing you fail to take into consideration is that those who choose to serve in the military run the risk of getting nothing, as they stand a chance of getting killed in combat.
Not meaning for this to be about ME as I am so often accused - I'm just offering facts and figures, based on personal experience.
My husband served 4-1/2 years active duty in the USMC - two tours in Nam. His top pay as an E/4 over 4 (years) was $412/month. Hardly anything to get rich on - even back then. He then went into the Reserves and served for 22 years - one weekend a month and 2 weeks in the Summer in Panama; eventually back in the USA. Twice during his reserve duty, he was called back to active duty. His employers had his job waiting for him upon his return, but he didn't get paid by them while he was gone, and the amount of money the government paid him while he served active duty was about 1/3 of his regular wages. His top yearly income in the Reserves was $4,800 with a bit more for the two years in which he was called back to active duty.
His retirement income now is $574/month - and he doesn't have to pay for supplement insurance to Medicare which would cost us about $350/month if we had to buy supplement insurance on our own. However, we still have to pay for Medicare benefits.
If anyone wants to call those benefits obscene for putting in 26-1/2 years service with the military, sobeit. If anyone wants to say he doesn't deserve what he earned, sobeit.
If you say people who paid into unemployment deserve unemployment benefits, then the same holds true for people who paid into social security, medicare, and served in the military. They are not entitlements.
With regard to unemployment, I'd say that anyone searching for a job for xx number of months without success should consider retraining for another type career. And, sometimes taking a job at lesser pay and proving your worth to your employer with past experience and knowledge that you're bringing to the plate is a good shot at quick advancement and a higher salary. 75% of success in the workplace is just showing up.
A local used car dealership had a sign up for a number of weeks - "Car detailer wanted - $20/hour - will train." Our friend's son was on unemployment and supposedly looking for work, and we told him about it. His response - "That's hard labor. I still have a lot of time left on unemployment." He's 20-years old and collecting less than $200 wk, living home with mom and dad and not paying a nickle toward his keep. Parents may be pretty much to blame for his selfish/shiftless attitude. Not saying this is the norm for people on unemployment, but when people hear responses like this - it's bound to get them riled.