How did it get to this point?

Unlike Clark County's firefighters, who are all unskilled, corrupt, incompetent, lazy, and grossly overpaid, and could each be replaced tomorrow by 3.5 equally qualified persons at the exact same cost.

You said it, comrade. At least we agree on something....although I don't agree that they're ALL corrupt and they are clearly not Unskilled....just grossly overpaid....oh and many of them appear to be out to cheat the system even given their lucrative pay and benefits...so we'll add greedy to some.

Seriously--How do you justify salary and benefits 3 times the national average? Cost of living? Extra Skills or Training? I don't think so. Try political patronage and a disfunctional county government. One thing I'll guarantee...the gravy train can't last forever.

Oh and I'll bet you something else...that whole county firefighting function could be privatized...and it would provide better service at far less cost. Now, try that with my company...Oh wait a minute...you can't...I'm already privatized.

As one of those former military people, I can tell you first hand that those folks don't get paid squat for their efforts. Just to remind you people out there, some of the jobs the military folks do don't relate to the outside world. (not in the civilian sector) When those folks retire/quit the military, those skills don't adapt over to the civilian world. Try "starting over" at middle age having job skills that no one has any use for. Even worse, go through it having a family to take care of.

If these firefighters are getting paid $180k, then they should be collectively fired and others hired for the job. I figure at that rate, you can get 3 people for the old price of one. In the end your creating 2 more jobs than your losing, that's a good thing Mr. President.

If you choose to leave the military without aquirring a set of skills useful in the outside world, thats really on you. I was an Infantry officer, not exactly something easily transferrable to the real world, but the skills one gets to do that job are very useful in almost employment. Then there is the free medical for life that enlisted folks are entitled to.
In todays military, re-enlistment bonuses often exceed $100,000 and when deployed overseas a senior NCO can easily get into six figures annually, with much of that tax sheltered.Toss in twenty year retirement and I'm not sure how anyone can call todays troops underpaid. Back in the 1980s, I had troops that collected foodstamps for their families, but that was a long time ago. Back then, the commissaries were selling horsemeat.

Free medical does NOT exist. It ceased during the late 1980's and early 1990's with the advent of Tricare.
You have a co-pay which must be met, your are last when it comes to treatment at a military hospital, you become a glorified lab rat for the federal governments testing of new drugs, and of course you can't sue when given substandard care or when medical procedures are not followed. (If you have questions on the last bit, please contact the Dental office at the Dayton,Ohio VA. A dentist there did not sterilize the instraments between patients for the last 20 YEARS. Some could have HIV, AIDS, Hepatitus C, and other afflictions.) (said dentist is currently sitting on his ass, doing nothing at the VA center while the investigation continues.)

Re-enlistment bonuses depend upon the AFSC or MOS (in your case) that you are re-enlisting to. My particular one which was in high demand during the mid 1990's, did not have a re-enlistment bonus for folks over 12 years. My particular speciality was SO small (less than 800 people worldwide) that promotions after the grade of E-5 were almost impossible due to the number of slots available were extreamly small. (less than 10 per year) Getting out of the speciality was impossible due to the needs of the Air Force. Looking at the current list, most of the large bonuses are for the linquists in various languages. Although the non-Arab ones are not getting much if any bonus at all. The Air Force maximum is at $90,000

Not all specialities will be deployed, most non-combat specialities will never see anthing outside their current bases. Some, like mine won't be deployed as their skills are not needed in theater and due to security reasons, they are better off not being deployed to a combat area. (basically, if we got deployed it would be the furthest away from the combat area as possible. Qutar would be a possible area of deployment for example)

Pay has gone up for military folks since I was discharged, however, the folks that get the worst of are the married low-ranking folks. (E-1 through E-4) Typically base housing is out of the question for these military members so they have to live off base with their spouses IF its allowed. Remember, there still places in the world where spouses are not allowed to come with their family members. (Korea for example)

Um, I was being sarcastic. You are obviously among the small minority of folks who like to talk about things they know nothing about. The national average wage for firefighters WOULD be relevant, if Clark County was average, which it OBVIOUSLY isn't (obvious to most of us, anyway). And your genius idea about privatizing fire departments, wow, what can I say, I'm seeing the Nobel Prize in Economics in your future. Can't see any reason why that won't catch and spread, like, um, wildfire. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Almost a Palin.

When does a thread get classified as political and then erased?

I think we have to wait until someone blames all of this on either G. W. Bush or B. Obama.

Nevermind. I'm done arguing with 'public servants'.

Getting back to the original question...

Some of the Clark County firefighters, and several in leadership positions, behaved like real scum. They scheduled "sick" days months in advance, and coordinated "sick" days to maximize overtime. Nobody should condone this. So, how did it get to this point?

Sadly, many in our country always seemed to have a uniform fetish. They were happy to condemn anyone in our government, unless they were police officers, firefighters, or soldiers, in which case they assumed sainthood. And that allowed this kind of evil to exist in our police and fire departments and in our military. It's time to realistically look at those who protect us with grown-up eyes.