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Can of Worms: Should servicepeople get preferential treatment?
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Post by
Squishalot
Hi guys!
This poll series is inspired by a new TV series being aired in Australia called "Can Of Worms". In fact, it's not just inspired by, it's blatantly ripping it off, to some extent.
The premise of the show is that it's a comedy panel that discusses ethical issues (i.e. opening up a can of worms, figuratively). Each week, it brings up two 'big worms' for discussion. There's only one rule - no fence sitting!
Here we diverge from the show (mostly because I haven't been following it in the last couple of weeks) and start coming up with questions of our own. This is question 6 in the series - should servicepeople get preferential treatment?
Included in this category: people like police, doctors and nurses, fire fighters, military personnel, teachers, people generally who provide a 'good of the people' type of service.
By preferential treatment, I'm referring to things like getting off speeding tickets (which inspired this question), jumping queues at cinemas or bars, tax breaks, etc.
Post by
Adamsm
I'd say yes, just because these are the people who make running into a burning building/dangerous situation/fighting a war for the rest us, a part of their regular lifestyle. We should honour our heroes and all that.
Do I think they should use that power for the purpose of jumping queues....well probably not heh.
Post by
Jubilee
Who gets to decide what's a good of the people? Librarians and plumbers both provide a specialized service that helps some aspect of our society. So I don't believe that it should be done like that.
Post by
Squishalot
Who gets to decide what's a good of the people? Librarians and plumbers both provide a specialized service that helps some aspect of our society. So I don't believe that it should be done like that.
So do bankers, but nobody believes me when I say that ;)
Post by
240140
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Post by
83344
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Post by
Monday
Depends on whether they've been in life threatening situations or not. Overall, I chose no, although I believe there are exceptions.
Post by
pezz
Should an arbitrarily decided segment of society get arbitrarily decided benefits? Is that a serious question?
Post by
324987
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Post by
134377
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Post by
Orranis
No. While I think it's pretty cool if they let them skip at the bars, it's their choice. They chose the career, and that's what it is, a career.
And people give speeding tickets for very specific reasons. You can save a hundred people from a fire but I guarantee that when you kill or even injure a single person because you knew you could speed without consequences nobody is going to look up to you.
Post by
gnomerdon
everyone pay taxes, therefore every "hard working" citizen should be equal.
Post by
Skreeran
I'd say yes, just because I'm going into the Army, and if you're handing our special treatment, I'd be obliged to take you up on it... :P
Nah, I'm just kidding. As far as I'm concerned, it's up to you. Respect the people you respect, don't just do it because youre 'supposed' to.
Besides, there are some soldiers I respect, like
this guy
and
this guy
. You know, soldiers who embody the ideals of compassion and respect, even when they're fighting a war against another nation. Then there's guys like
these
and
these guys
who aren't even worthy of my spit.
The thing is that we shouldn't confuse the two. Far too many people treat the military as either the Justice League, or a government funded murder machine. There are both heroes and scum in the military, and they should be treated as they are individually.
As for policemen and etc., well, again, that's up to you. Respect who you respect.
Post by
gnomerdon
thanks for the charlie brown story
Post by
530888
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Post by
Ashelia
I feel like sometimes, sure, they deserve people being nice to them--and even helping them out.
Case in point, my mother had a broken rear end light once when I was like 12. I remember a cop pulling us over. When he leaned in to give her a ticket, etc., he saw she was in her nurs'es uniform and had a nurse badge hanging from the rearview mirror. He didn't give her one, he instead talked about how she should fix it and such. She fixed it later that month. It was nice of him, but she explained to me--who wasn't understanding of why we got away with it--that service people tend to do service people favors. But since she was a single mom, and while nurses make decent money, it was really a help to not give her a ticket for a very stupid violation.
I mean, her job is ridiculously hard. She works tirelessly each day, helping lives--and she pretty much gets screamed at, things thrown at her, etc. Patients are REALLY hard to deal with, and as someone who went to the hospital a couple months ago, I can see why; you're miserable, you're mad you're there, and even if a nurse is nice, they're making you do something you'd rather not (like stand up, use the bathroom, take your meds) when you're in considerable pain.
So if she gets a tiny break because someone else with a hard job happened to notice she had a hard job, too, it's not really going to break the universe. A small tax break wouldn't be ludacrious, IMO, either. I'm not saying thousands, but if they could write $500 bucks off as personal expenses for being a nurse or a fireman, then that'd be fair.
Because honestly? Those jobs are very hard. And it blows my mind people do them sometimes. They are way stronger than I could ever be to have to clean up after injured people every day and be treated like villains while doing so =\(##RESPBREAK##)2##DELIM##Ashelia##DELIM##
Post by
606231
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Post by
Liquoid
Watching "A Few Good Men" should help out making a decision. BRB.
Post by
ElhonnaDS
I don't think they should get out of speeding tickets, or tax breaks, no. I have seen a lot of businesses that will give a free coffee to policemen, a free beer with a military ID, or a military discount, and I think that's pretty great. I think when business owners on a personal basis decide that they want to do a little extra for people in service-type jobs, it's well deserved by the people they choose to give it to. But I don't think it should go as far as a free pass to drive like an idiot (I have seen a cop put on their lights on to run a red light, then pull into a McDonald's drive through).
Post by
xaratherus
I originally voted yes based solely on how I interpreted the question - i.e., service people to me means "active military".
Reading the description though, to see that it included doctors, I changed my vote "no". In the United States, the average family physician's (non-specialty, general practitioner) salary is $141,000.
This puts them well outside "middle class", which is where most active military and folks like teachers and fire fighters reside (for example, average active military salary is less than $40,000 a year; average fire fighter salary in the United States ranges from $25,000 at the low end to $75,000 for long-term veterans; teachers at the elementary or high school level is around $42,000).
I think in order to get any sort of relatively clear results you'd need to trim down your scope of what a "service person" is.
Salary information based on search results from
payscale.com
, and may not be accurate in all states/countries.
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