Social gratitude

>receive special praise
It doesn't seem like it to me actually. Policemen are considered scum tier on average unless they've just done something heroic (and even then they'll probably hear plenty of criticism), doctors are only praised right after they heal somebody (otherwise they're incompetent bloodsuckers) and firemen don't exist outside of movies.

Because they perform dangerous jobs for mediocre pay (except for doctors but that's because of med school expenses)

It's also because we as a society tend to praise those that work for the good of others. And despite what many of you edgy 16 year olds who got your weed confiscated, without the police cities would convulse and self destruct

On a more philosophical level it's because the people who do these jobs realize something like what this poster said , in that there is an unrelenting wave of sorrow that most people don't want to deal with. The burnout rate for most cops is 4-7 years, after that point most people hate themselves and their work

It's hard work that often doesn't get much attention so people make themselves feel better by saying thanks every once in a while

where i'm from (portugal) while a doctor gets paid in gold (around 1200~3000€/month or anything they can grab if they work on private clinics) a fireman or a police officer gets paid like shit (between 600€ and 1000€)
and in the case of the cops they literally have to pay for their uniforms, ammo for firearm training and in some cases fuel for their working cars (also, if they fuck up while driving their police cars they might have to pay from their pockets)

also, doctors not only get what is considered a shitload of money according to our living standards but they also have a high social status unlike the other two professions i just mentioned

That is a very grim way of seeing the profession.

Okay, I stand corrected. I'm aware of the rigorous standards for all three professions, it escaped my brain for a bit.

>That is a very grim way of seeing the profession.
I'm a med student, can confirm that teachers encourage you to think like that. If you can't face the fact that you WILL make mistakes, you'll be out of the hospital before your third month.

it's not that they are doing something special, it's that they are doing something essential. it's important to appreciate that because it would be disastrous not to.

>receive special praise

seriously, do yo really want to piss these guys off?
especially if they might save your life one day (yes, even a cop)?

their jobs are obvious examples of good work, i.e., putting out your house on fire, going back in to get your kid, shooting bad guys, &c.

My issue isn't about the mistakes.

I'm aware that when doctors fuck up, people can and will die. It's just... really grim humor, if I'm reading it right.

Dude, you need to be detatched. If you get sad for every mistake you make, you'll kill yourself before saving anyone.
I mean shit, I caused a pneumothorax once by fucking up a thoracentesis, my boss laughed it up and mocked me for a week. Next time I did it I was focused and relaxed. If he had harped on about the consequences of failure I'd have been too scared to try again.

This is all very interesting. Humor as a coping mechanism is well-known.

I've never actually seen it that way.

(I'm not a doctor or a med student, so this is all new to me.)

>I caused a pneumothorax once by fucking up a thoracentesis

this is more common than you think, so don't be a "weiner" about it

>In a sinking ship with only one life boat for 1 person there is a lawyer, a doctor, and engineer. Who would you put on the boat? Most choose doctor.

The engineer, obviously.

The job of a public officer is to serve & shut their mouth.
If you want to give an opinion then leave

All the firefighters here are strictly volunteer. There's no salary for it.

Cops and Firefighters risk their life to save lives. IMO they are second only to soldiers in heroism.

Doctors save lives but do not risk their own, making them a little lower on the totem pole.

>Why do firemen, police officers, doctors, etc. receive special praise even though they're paid for their work? Do people think they're all doing this out of charity or something?

Because these jobs are supplied by the State. Everything the State does needs to be ideologized as noble and virtuous activity, else people would see through it's corrosive authoritarianism.

I volunteer as Firefighter.
I started because other firefighters convince me soo.
Now i do it because i feel obligated to help, since they paid me many training and soo...

It seems great job thou.

Or, you know, people commend others who save other people's lives.

What was your worst day on the job?

>All the firefighters here are strictly volunteer.
doubtly
You sure have professional firefighters.
Where are you from.

There's a difference between saving someone's life, and an occupation being synonymous with being a lifesaver.

The former, anyone can do, the latter requires ideology.

>the latter requires ideology.
Or not. Most of these guys just do their job.

Plus, you know, you have private docs and firefighting units, and no believes they aren't busting their ass saving people on a day-to-day basis, even if they get a nicer paycheck.

And no, you need to be a wee-bit special to save lives, even once. Most people either freeze or fuck up. My friend totally shuts down when seeing blood, which hasn't really been helpful when of our guys has had to go to the hospital.

Myself, obviously. Egotism4lyfe

One of the first of intervention.
Basicly was looking at almost dead person (he didn't breath, no pusle) in eyes while wonder if he is dead. I was sure he is dead.
Later one guy manage to somehow get him back to life. With pumping his loungs which was filled with water (it happens with punctured lungs). He somehow survived big fall. Also his face was beaten as fuck. When we carry that guy to emergency vehicle, his daughter was asking me if he will be ok, while he was yelling/crying because of pain.

Otherwise some trainings were physically hard too.

So what does it mean when a police officer does something like this?

youtube.com/watch?v=0PthmvM5YTw

Skip to 1:10.

More like 1:05.

You put police under scrutiny and broadcast all this shit. It's not like we don't have countries were we culled police brutality, unlike the US.
youtube.com/watch?v=AQnMeHi1aHU
This woman got everything settled 30 minutes after putting it on youtube.

Sure, but the point is that just because a job is hard to do, and requires you to be fearless doesn't mean the job itself should merit anything, because the person who is doing the job is all the matters, just like any other job.

Psychopaths are also fearless and are able to be police officers, doesn't mean they'll help people or save lives.

>Sure, but the point is that just because a job is hard to do, and requires you to be fearless doesn't mean the job itself should merit anything
It still does, because you still
>because the person who is doing the job is all the matters, just like any other job.
No, because failing to do the job means people die and you (usually) put the fag in prison, unlike regular jobs. Risking your life and doing very hard things is the STANDARD, not some exceptional thing you should aspire to.

You have a point, that people are just people, they must not be put on a pedestal just because of their nice hats, and guilty members must be punished, and as a sidenote, other professionals that keep stuff from crumbling should be more recognised and thanked, but to say they don't deserve any gratitude just because "durr hurr, it's their jerb" is retarded.

>Risking your life and doing very hard things is the STANDARD

Not really. Like 70% of police work is shuffling papers, another 20% is stopping people speeding, and the last 10% might be dangerous situations or alternatively arresting dangerous criminals.

I should know, my brother is a cop. He says they are just glorified paperpushers, and I believe him.

So are doctors, but you know, i wouldn't trust the woman at post-office in medical matters.

police men and firefighters are usually unionized, in my city police/fire start off at 80k and can move up to 100-120k, thats not mediocre pay at all, especially when you consider they get benefits along with that, lol

The majority of firefighters in the United States are volunteers.

>For example, there were approximately 1,129,250 firefighters in the U.S. in 2012. Of the total number of firefighters, 345,950 were career firefighters and 783,300 were volunteers. all volunteer. Two-thirds of the U.S. population is protected by all career or mostly career fire departments.
>Source: NFPA

Cities are paid, the suburban and rural areas are volunteer.

why is merica so shit

>his country doesn't have people who run into burning buildings for fun

Because our country is at least 16x the size of any country in Europe....

Russians had and has people that jumped into burning forests for fun, so i guess crazy-awesome goes around.

>all these people missing the point

Do you even understand why charity is good? It's because there isn't a benefit to the charitable person and it costs them to be charitable, all for the benefit of someone else. If you understand that a job will pay you to complete a range of tasks, you are merely fulfilling on obligation, just like literally any other job.

If I'm paid $10/hr to flip burgers that is my job, and I know it's my job. But then, if I see someone choking on my burger and I save their life, that would be worthy of praise because it's not in my job description to do that AND YET I did it anyway. So, if firefighters are paid to put out fucking fires, there is nothing extraordinary when they put out fires. Obviously volunteers deserve praise because that's charity, but paid workers understand their job and do it.

Conversely, if a firefighter went to a fire and then said, "nah I don't won't to get involved" he would have failed to do his job--and hopefully--be fired (pun intended). You don't get mad at bystanders who don't put out fires, do you?

Depends on what society I will be dealing with if I land on a deserted island. Maybe they have doctors and engineers but I need someone to communicate on my behalf due to autism. A lawyer would be pretty good in that regard.

Volunteers don't deserve praise either. They are doing it for self satisfaction or recognition which is the same as payment.

Wrong. There are many cases of people reacting to help others like a reflex. Like if you heard a girl's scream for help and immediately run towards the sound. That happens all the time actually, your argument is weak.

I agree with you in a case like that, I was thinking more of meals on wheels type volunteers

Ahh, yes there are certainly people who get a lot of reward from attention, and will seek it out wherever they can.

So what the fuck is happening in this video? The guy holding the camera didn't show the dog coming up, but it was without a leash barking, seemed aggressive, and shit.

Then the owner came up; the god backed down, then she got aggressive with the cop, tried to put her hands on the cop then got pushed down and arrested.

To be honest the dog should've be indoors with a leash, and she shouldn't have put her hands on the cop.

>not saving the engineer

You probably live in New York, LA or some other extremely large city where demand is very high. And if that's the case the requirements are also probably pretty high. I know in NYC the base requirement is a bachelor's degree, compared to my city of just a high school diploma
In my city police start off at either 37 or 45k (need to check) and I think firefighters are comparable

The key difference between what you said in your post and the job of the police and fire department is that one is once or twice while the other is on a daily basis
If you go to a bar one night with your friends and break up a fight you deserve praise, since it's not your job and you did it out of sincerity. The police have to wake up every day to respond to crises. Every day (usually multiple times in a day) they walk into dangerous situations, working for total strangers who often hate them anyways.
The problem with your argument is that you're comparing two unlike things and drawing conclusions about them. It would be like saying that because there are hundreds of fish in the sea which are harmless and wouldn't hurt you, a shark is harmless because it is a fish

One more thing is that danger is an ever present factor. A firefighter has to be at 100% every time they respond to a fire emergency, because if they aren't people die. If you're feeling under the weather while flipping burgers the worst that can happen is that the burger might get a little overdone

Similar system is in middle europe.
And it works great.
But i don't know a firefighter system based only on volunteers.

>lol
Kill yourself.

On another note pay differs state to state and city to city. Also:

The US isntt regulated at a national level per se. Each town or county regulates how they provide fire service. My county, one of 21 in my state, has 52 towns. only 1 has 100% paid staff. 2 have a combination and the other 49 are completely volunteer

Their jobs are dangerous and they don't have to do it, they take a risk presumably because they want to help people, not because they are paid particularly well as they arent.

Thats why

Well yeah.
It's still important hierarchy, so volunteer fire brigades needs higher rank-professional firestation

Obviously it's because these jobs requires skill and it helps people. Art requires skill but the stereotype is starving artist. Actors don't get any real praise because their job is easy. Models are called coat-hangers and so on. The difference is basically what jobs represent to people in general. Lawyers are liars, politicians are all evil reptiles and so on. But it's also because of skill, obviously. It's harder becoming a doctor than say, being a lifeguard. You still help people but as a lifeguard you can get a lot of disrespect.

>The problem with your argument is that you're comparing two unlike things and drawing conclusions about them

What are those two things?

>What is this entire thread
Fuck off

The two things I'm comparing are regular jobs (cubicle worker, warehouser, steel mil, etc) and public service jobs (police and firefighter). I would argue that while both types are technically jobs, but are radically different. the former is a job for the explicit purpose to make money. The latter you only get paid because people can't be expected to do those types of jobs for free

I know that's a little weird but I'm working right now and posting from my phone so my wording is a little weird

Doctors, EMTs, lifeguards, etc. are private sector yet receive praise. Also, politicians, some social workers, DMV workers, people in the judicial system, etc. are public sector, but don't receive the same type of praise.