I was recently listening to another Progressive Radio talker's program, & a caller phoned in to complain about the pensions of some people in the public sector! That host spoke with the caller but really missed an opportunity to set the record straight! This caller spoke about how he was self employed since 1987, and how the retired Chief of Police in his town was receiving a pension in excess of 100k a year! He thought this was outrageous, and paled in comparison to the salary he earned as a self-employed businessman. What I was hoping the host would have said to this idiot (pardon the insult) was that the people who chose public service worked @ a far lower rate than those who pursued careers in the private sector (in 1987), with an eye to a safe secure pension @ the end of their (our) service. We chose to serve as police, firefighters, social workers, teachers, etc. These were occupations that served the PUBLIC good! The pensions we negotiated then were modest by the standards of the day. But now, after the "Race to The Bottom" mentality, that has been fostered by the corporatist who people like that caller looks up to, now our pensions look excessive! We (Me & my Civil Service Professionals) chose to SERVE the PUBLIC, and not our personal greed, like this caller. Public service was available to all these people like the caller, but public service was work that was beneath them! Now, they're upset because we chose to take our compensation @ the end of our careers. We kept an eye to the future. Our salaries were decent, but far below those who chose the corporate route. We were discounted, and our professions were regarded as the careers you FELL to when you couldn't "CUT IT" in the private sector! I am a retired police officer from the Detroit Police Dept. I served 23 years, 5 months, 12 days, in this profession. I would've served longer, but my career was cut short after my police cruiser was struck head-on by a vehicle driven by a fleeing felon. Now this caller feels as if I'm leaching the system because I have the nerve to expect the pension that was NEGOTIATED 25 years ago! The years served, and my permanent limp, is not enough to justify my compensation package! Me, & people like me, are the reason that the USA is in the throws of economic dispair! Not the CEO's who truly wrecked not only the American economy, but the WORLD economy! People like this caller THINK that they are cut from the same cloth as Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, and all the other sociopaths who have improvished them! People like this caller identify so much higher than their true station in life! They truly believe that they are one deal away from being a TITAN in their chosen field! CEO's of today, who have run most of the companies they've headed in the ground, are INTITLED to the obscene compensation packages they receive when they leave those jobs, according to people like the caller! Thom PLEASE educate these clods when they call your show! Tell them no teacher, cop, fireman, social worker, factory worker, or anyone else who is paid hourly, has done anything to ruin our country! It's people like them. Those who has stood by and cheered @ the hollowing out of the American dream, because they didn't think it would effect them. Now they are victims of their own greed, lack of empathy for those they consider beneath them, and the insensitivity of the suffering of others!

Thank You