My favorite newspaper isn’t the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal or the National Enquirer (well, that’s a close second), it happens to be the New York Post. And that’s for a variety of reasons, first being the front page. Simply put, it’s the best front page in the biz. Then there’s Page Six. Even tho it’s no longer on page 6, the gossip column lures me in every day, even though most of the time I don’t know who the hell the celebrities are they’re writing about. And perhaps the one thing that keeps me coming back for more is the headlines.
There is no newspaper in the country who is as creative with headlines as the Post. The headline writers are those guys and gals who have to get creative with limited characters and have been doing it long before Twitter limited us all to 120 characters. Headline writers used to be bona-fide jobs in the news biz. A dedicated person/persons had the job of writing the appropriate headline for each story and would often labor for hours coming up with just the right words to lure a reader in. Headline writing has gone the way of the linotype machine, but not at the Post.
In today’s edition, a story ran called “$ecrets of NYC perk force: Inside look at the unions’ budget-busting benefits.” In the article, the authors uncovered various perks that are included into union contracts that the taxpayers fund every payday. While most of us constantly complain about teacher salaries, in New York City, school custodians start at $80k a year and cap out at nearly $114k, while teachers start out at $45k and cap out at $100k.
The folks who put their lives on the line every time they walk the beat or step into a patrol car earn nowhere near that of the school janitor. Police officers start off at $41k and cap at $76k. Firefighters, fare wore worse than the men and women in blue. They start out at a mere $36k and won’t see more than $68k during their career. The lowly sanitation worker earns nearly the same salary as a firefighter.
It’s a sad state of affairs when a school custodian earns nearly two-times more than a police officer or firefighter in the Big Apple. Maybe I’ll move to the city, learn how to push a broom, fix a leaky pipe and take out the trash smiling the entire time as the taxpayers sit back and watch me bring home the bacon. And caviar on Fridays.