That was truer 60 years ago, when enlistment promised WW2-era benefits and minimal wealth disparity meant your dollar stretched significantly farther. Today, over 1.2M veterans are on some form of food assistance. Military health benefits have been privatized to the point of comic relief. The old GI Bill and housing benefits have been whittled down to a small recruitment bonus and some tax exemptions. The pay for your first five years of service is well below what you could earn in the private sector and there’s virtually no path to advancement outside of the officer’s corps.
But what military recruiters lack in financial incentives, the make up for with bald face lying. You get sold a pack of lies about “job experience” in technology fields, when most of the actual work is menial labor (professional jobs are heavily outsourced to private military contractors). You get promised a package of benefits that are nearly impossible to claim, even assuming you make it all the way through your term of service with an honorable discharge. You’re subject to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse for which you have no recourse. And also there’s the question of your proximity to a combat zone, which cares a litany of additional perils.
The military is not a cheap option, it is a high stakes gamble. Its possible to come out the other side better off than a peer who worked a trade job or took debt to get through community college. But the tail risks are enormous, and the benefits are increasingly illusionary.
Let’s carry on that anti-military sentiment.
Its a shit job for suckers. Even assuming you’re a rah-rah keyboard commando, you’ve got no interest in actually taking these jobs. That’s the whole reason why poor people are targeted. They’re not being offered a sweat heart deal. They’re simply the most misinformed and desperate group of people and therefore most likely to fall for the bait.
Poor people and teenagers. But there are some options. It’s definitely a minefield for anyone though, and you’re going to step on one if you just trust a recruiter.
That was truer 60 years ago, when enlistment promised WW2-era benefits and minimal wealth disparity meant your dollar stretched significantly farther. Today, over 1.2M veterans are on some form of food assistance. Military health benefits have been privatized to the point of comic relief. The old GI Bill and housing benefits have been whittled down to a small recruitment bonus and some tax exemptions. The pay for your first five years of service is well below what you could earn in the private sector and there’s virtually no path to advancement outside of the officer’s corps.
But what military recruiters lack in financial incentives, the make up for with bald face lying. You get sold a pack of lies about “job experience” in technology fields, when most of the actual work is menial labor (professional jobs are heavily outsourced to private military contractors). You get promised a package of benefits that are nearly impossible to claim, even assuming you make it all the way through your term of service with an honorable discharge. You’re subject to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse for which you have no recourse. And also there’s the question of your proximity to a combat zone, which cares a litany of additional perils.
The military is not a cheap option, it is a high stakes gamble. Its possible to come out the other side better off than a peer who worked a trade job or took debt to get through community college. But the tail risks are enormous, and the benefits are increasingly illusionary.
Its a shit job for suckers. Even assuming you’re a rah-rah keyboard commando, you’ve got no interest in actually taking these jobs. That’s the whole reason why poor people are targeted. They’re not being offered a sweat heart deal. They’re simply the most misinformed and desperate group of people and therefore most likely to fall for the bait.
Poor people and teenagers. But there are some options. It’s definitely a minefield for anyone though, and you’re going to step on one if you just trust a recruiter.