LETTER: Cops, firefighters pay for their benefits with shorter lifespans

In response to your Sept. 2 story on “costly carve-outs” for retired police and firefighters:

Review-Journal reporter Mary Hynes forgot to mention that the average American’s lifespan is 79 years, but the average American firefighter’s lifespan is 10 years less than that and the average cop is anywhere from 13 to 22 years less than average. On average, the people for whom first responders risk their lives live to almost 80, while firefighters live to only 69 and cops live between 56 and 66 years of age.

First responders trade a lot of lifespan in order to do their already risky jobs. Yet the Review-Journal thinks it’s important to write a story about how much it costs the taxpayers to compensate these people for their reduced lifespan in order to serve the public. In other words, you might pay fairly high pensions to these people, but think about it: You aren’t paying them for very long, are you? These people not only risk their lives for you, they actually give part of it away.

You get way more than what you pay for when you’re talking about fire and police services in Las Vegas and Clark County. I’m not sure you could say the same about the bang for your buck you get from local journalists.