so what are the benefits working for a large organization
gosh i wouldn't know i've never worked for a large organization
uh
uh that will make it interesting
well i will take that back i i was in the Air Force for thirteen years i guess that qualifies as a large organization
yeah i i would qualify the U S government as
large if not too large
sort of large yeah just
a little bit little bit bigger than TI
yeah yeah
okay i never really counted that as an organization because it's uh
the benefits are funny
yeah the benefits are strange they change every day and uh
you don't really have a lot of choice
yeah
not like TI do you want this or do you want this or do you want this
well we don't have that kind of choice either
um
oh
oh i mean you certain
yeah out here in the real world it's all the same
oh really
no matter who your employer is
no i mean you have the choice of taking this health insurance or
or some other or something like that
uh
yeah
uh yeah here in the Springs we have a choice of two either an HMO or a company health insurance
yeah
yeah
so there are two
yeah
of course i can't say we didn't have a choice if you always wanted to you could uh go out and buy your health insurance
out of your own jeans yes
yeah out of your own jeans and stay a way from the base hospital which is generally what i did
ooh
kind of scary
it was that bad huh
uh i i never fully trusted them the only time i ever went there was when i had to for a flight physical or something
uh which has to be their doctor but they're not doing anything to me other than testing me so i let them do that
well there are other benefits with the military
well i don't i
that the civilians don't get
yeah i don't i don't
i don't bad mouth the military too much i had a i had a good time
well i just meant from a benefit standpoint
well from benefit well that's one of the reasons i made a decision to get out
uh i what i perceived as the benefits were just eroding
yeah
uh
well the
their pension plan is really good
yeah you know that part is good except for the except for the little thing that you're paying into social security for twenty years and when you start
and then you can't draw it
that's right and then and then you start drawing your retirement pay and if you start drawing the social security they offset your retirement dollar for dollar
yes
and i always thought that that that was a big rip off
uh
yeah well on the other side of the fence
but still
the way it works is that uh
some employers
although they have a qualified pension plan they don't have a
viable pension plan
yeah
yeah
and we won't mention any names
don't worry they're recording every word
i know
i didn't say it was them
oh okay you're right you're right
but i didn't but
but i didn't say it wasn't either
that's right
we will let them draw their own conclusions
that's right draw your own inference
um
uh
but but but what you are saying about the military times is is true i mean fifty percent uh of your base pay is pretty good
and
uh
medical for the rest of your life
yeah that you know that sounds great on paper but it's not it's not something that i would look would look forward to
well we have
we have had some medical i mean some military retirees work up here for us
or a bunch really and
they did use the heck out of the medical
yeah
military medical
yeah
now the military dental was poor
no now
uh-huh
at best
yeah
but the medical seemed somewhat adequate
somewhat adequate
yeah i mean don't get me wrong for something something that was major
i i wouldn't have any problems with them it's the daily uh go in with the with the flu or something like that
and and the the treatment is terrible i mean first you wait for hours and hours and hours and then the guy says you have a temperature well i knew that
we're going to give you Sudafed you know i've been taking Sudafed for two weeks it doesn't do any good
that's all i can do that's all i can do
yeah yeah
yeah uh i'm a member of an HMO
and uh from all indications it's quite similar to the military
yeah yeah well that that's HMO's are designed that way i mean they are going to they're gonna they're gonna get the most bang for their buck
yeah exactly and
and uh you know they're they're in the big profit making business
and
so
and so the single benefits that i consider among the most important are medical insurance
yeah absolutely
because without it you can be
broke for the rest of your life
that's it forever and ever
all all you have to do is you don't have it let something bad happen
and that hospital will slap a lien on you so fast
because they do it routinely
yeah and
yes and the funny thing is that uh
private medical insurance grossly expensive
yeah oh i know i know
if you are not a member of a group
i know my roomie's got the ins urance through the school
uh-huh
and it runs fifty eight i think fifty eight bucks a month something like that
an that's not bad but you don't get anything
that's not bad
i mean to tell you
well you get what you pay for don't you
that's exactly right i mean it's nothing
um
uh it doesn't cover doctors or anything else it's crazy
doesn't cover doctors
no i mean you can go it will cover something major
but forget about things like eyes or your teeth or anything else
what it is it's medical insurance on paper
are you covered yes are you covered really no
that's right read between the lines are you covered no
so
but you know i mean the whole health care thing in the states is so screwed up that uh
yes it
uh it's totally ridiculous
it it's a shame it's
it is i mean
i'm one of those forty million Americans running around with no health insurance at the moment
in our state currently when in Colorado whenever you fill out uh your state income tax
they ask you if you have medical insurance if you do
you have to pay for those that don't have medical insurance
huh
i think it's two or four dollars a person i don't remember something along those lines but it
still the idea irks me so that
yeah
well it's sort of like North Carolina North Carolina has an interesting thing on their income tax uh they create
money
tax you with or to tax you on
there's a neat little formula on the back that you have to complete
and assuming you're you're you're at poverty line where you're uh deduction or you take the standard deduction of thirty two fifty uh that will work out to an additional three hundred dollars
right
tacked on to your taxable income
yeah and of course it goes higher and higher the more money you make
oh no
but the very least that anybody filing income tax form will have to pay on is three hundred dollars and they create money out of thin air
huh
i attached a little note to my my return when i sent it in saying gee i didn't know i had this extra three hundred dollars i wonder where it went
uh Colorado is a nifty thing if you
or they did until last year
in times past if you got a federal tax
refund
uh-huh
you paid state income tax the next year
on the refund yeah Alabama did that too
and i always thought well this is pretty nifty you taxed me when i made the money the feds
and now you're taxing me again on it
yeah the feds took it out and now they're giving it back to me and now you're going to tax it again i seem i seem to recall recall something about revolutions and wars about double and triple taxation and stuff
yes
yeah
course uh course it it's the by word now i mean let let's tax everything three or four times
and there are tax revolutions going on currently
there should be
but the problem is it's not an armed insurrection
no
eleven
it's not a violent overthrow of the people in Washington
no because because quite honestly the American people are so apathetic about everything Washington can do what they want to do
and they are trying to take away our guns
yeah that too
i'm a lifelong member of the NRA
i'm not as militant as i was when i was younger but i still firmly believe in the right to own and bear arms
and those people that say that
all that in the Constitution was guaranteeing is that we will have a militia
yeah that's garbage
i think they are sorely mistaken
they're they're wrong the militia in those days was the common man there was no organization of militia the militia made up the everyday common man
he pulled his squirrel rifle off his wall as he walked out in the yard
that's right and and if they said hey we need a militia then all the able bodied men were supposed to show up
