4 ms·

I don’t have a pension.

by solosoyokaze 6y ago

chrisseaton 6y ago
Pension / retirement fund, whatever.
- solosoyokaze 6y ago
  There's a big difference. Pensions are paid by the employer and retirement accounts are paid by the employee. Excessive benefits aside, the culture of the police is rotten and policing in the US needs to be rethought from the ground up.
  - chrisseaton 6y ago
    > There's a big difference. Pensions are paid by the employer and retirement accounts are paid by the employee. You make it sound like you're paid more if you get a pension! If the company pays into a pension for or gives you the money which you then pay into a pension... guess what it's the same money just a slightly different setup. I've got a pension I pay into myself, so it doesn't need to be your employer which does it.
  - xupybd 6y ago
    Rethought from the ground up scares me a little. Yes I think some places need some fundamental changes but you don't want to try a rebuild on a system like that.
    - solosoyokaze 6y ago
      Out of curiosity, what are you afraid of?
      - xupybd 6y ago
        When you attempt to build something from scratch you run the risk of creating something worse than the thing you were replacing.
        solosoyokaze 6y ago
        The police/prison industrial complex in the US is the worst in the world. It would be impossible to make it worse especially since its foundation is firmly rooted in racism (policy and history). We only gain from starting from scratch.
        dragonwriter 6y ago
        > The police/prison industrial complex in the US is the worst in the world. It would be impossible to make it worse No, it wouldn't. It's not even, right now, the worst it's been in the US. (It may be the most controversial it's ever been, but that's because standards have evolved faster than it has, not because it has gotten worse.) It may be (but probably
        solosoyokaze 6y ago
        We have the world's largest imprisoned population, both by total number and per capita: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera... We have known issues with police violence and racism. We have insane police budgets and a militarized police force. We have a highly ineffective "war on drugs" that has destroyed wide swaths of our country. I don't think it's controversial to say that the US has the worst police force and prison industry on earth.
        dragonwriter 6y ago
        > We have the world's largest imprisoned population, both by total number and per capita Perhaps; we certainly have the largest reported imprisoned population by those standards, but we also know that there are several countries whose numbers really, really can't be trusted. But, I didn't take issue with “the US police and prison industrial complex is the worst in the world” [0], I took issue with “it would be impossible to make it worse”, since it manifestly has been worse in terms of both abuses within the system and unjust motivations for getting people into the system. [0] which is not to say I agree, even setting aside potential issues with reporting of incarceration rates, because I'm not sure you've weighted situations where the “police” (and often the prison system, military, and other institutions) are heavily in league with organized crime, such as drug cartels, and directly involved in carrying out and covering up large scale murder on their behalf properly against incarceration rates.

I don’t have a pension.

chrisseaton 6y ago

Pension / retirement fund, whatever.

solosoyokaze 6y ago
There's a big difference. Pensions are paid by the employer and retirement accounts are paid by the employee. Excessive benefits aside, the culture of the police is rotten and policing in the US needs to be rethought from the ground up.
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  > There's a big difference. Pensions are paid by the employer and retirement accounts are paid by the employee. You make it sound like you're paid more if you get a pension! If the company pays into a pension for or gives you the money which you then pay into a pension... guess what it's the same money just a slightly different setup. I've got a pension I pay into myself, so it doesn't need to be your employer which does it.
- xupybd 6y ago
  Rethought from the ground up scares me a little. Yes I think some places need some fundamental changes but you don't want to try a rebuild on a system like that.
  - solosoyokaze 6y ago
    Out of curiosity, what are you afraid of?
    - xupybd 6y ago
      When you attempt to build something from scratch you run the risk of creating something worse than the thing you were replacing.
      - solosoyokaze 6y ago
        The police/prison industrial complex in the US is the worst in the world. It would be impossible to make it worse especially since its foundation is firmly rooted in racism (policy and history). We only gain from starting from scratch.
        dragonwriter 6y ago
        > The police/prison industrial complex in the US is the worst in the world. It would be impossible to make it worse No, it wouldn't. It's not even, right now, the worst it's been in the US. (It may be the most controversial it's ever been, but that's because standards have evolved faster than it has, not because it has gotten worse.) It may be (but probably
        solosoyokaze 6y ago
        We have the world's largest imprisoned population, both by total number and per capita: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera... We have known issues with police violence and racism. We have insane police budgets and a militarized police force. We have a highly ineffective "war on drugs" that has destroyed wide swaths of our country. I don't think it's controversial to say that the US has the worst police force and prison industry on earth.
        dragonwriter 6y ago
        > We have the world's largest imprisoned population, both by total number and per capita Perhaps; we certainly have the largest reported imprisoned population by those standards, but we also know that there are several countries whose numbers really, really can't be trusted. But, I didn't take issue with “the US police and prison industrial complex is the worst in the world” [0], I took issue with “it would be impossible to make it worse”, since it manifestly has been worse in terms of both abuses within the system and unjust motivations for getting people into the system. [0] which is not to say I agree, even setting aside potential issues with reporting of incarceration rates, because I'm not sure you've weighted situations where the “police” (and often the prison system, military, and other institutions) are heavily in league with organized crime, such as drug cartels, and directly involved in carrying out and covering up large scale murder on their behalf properly against incarceration rates.