• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    There are around 22k ICE agents.

    They increased payroll by 120% in the last year alone. This does not include private contracts for construction and maintenance of new detainment facilities, coming out of the $45B earmarked by Congress last year.

    There are around 4m teachers in the US. To raise them all from 55k to the 100k that ICE agents make (ignoring the hiring bonus) would cost 180b/yr.

    $45B -> $180B is not two orders of magnitude.

    if we had the money to pay ICE agents 100k+bonuses, then we should have just paid the teachers that much instead

    Pete Hegseth is currently asking Congress for an extra $200B in Pentagon spending, after increasing their budget $71B this year already.

    We clearly don’t have a problem with finding more money.

    • Artisian@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      We should use symmetric data where we can. We also have lots earmarked and moved around for education, it’s just a much bigger project. The cost comparison for signing bonus of ICE vs educators was apples to apples, and what was literally suggested in OP. Make another post with the honest comparison if you want that to be the standard. Feeds can be both informative and honest if we make them that way.

      (Also, only a few thousand jobs are offered the signing bonus. It’s a last mile carrot to get people talking, which we seem to be gullible enough to upvote and spread. I’m not enjoying being an ICE recruiter.)