There's a reason I put that in quotes, but yes. Working shitty hours, dealing with sick and dying/dead people, picking up morbidly obese people and only being able to make a decent wage at it in a couple of locations in the country is absolutely a downgrade in general from being paid a similar wage to dick around with a laptop and have reasonable hours almost anywhere in the world. Your work is physically and emotionally difficult and I would not be able to handle that. (I also doubt I'd get $100k in Lexington, KY :lol
I see your points, but I love helping people in their times of need. I don't find it physically or emotionally difficult either. Sure, a 350 lb pt is a bitch to pick up, but I work harder in the gym on a daily basis. As far as the emotional part, you have to be able to distance yourself from all the terrible shit you see at work. EMS peeps have a sick sense of humor and laughing at things that normal people would cringe at is just another part of how we survive doing it for any length of time.
Shitty hours.... maybe if I was single and in my early 20s. For my life the hours I work are fucking perfect. EMS is very flexible because our business hours are all the fucking time. I get paid to sleep, too. I also get paid to forum a lot. Where I work we do 12 hr shifts and on average I actually "work" half of that. This includes doing cool shit like reversing drug overdoses, hypoglycemia and severe respiratory syndromes. Shit that you can see make a huge difference immediately. Oh, and then we go to the ER and flirt with hot RNs and bullshit with doctors about our treatments.
There is a lot of cool shit about my job. It definitely is not for everyone, doe.