yikes - the sheer depth of your stupidity is surprising - even for this board
yikes - the sheer depth of your stupidity is surprising - even for this board
stupid idea. The military functions as a team in support of the grunt in the field. That said, you don't just whack the team's benefits because many are serving in support roles that are needed for the grunt to succeed.
Plus, you'd have all sorts of BS going on with people trying to get deployed to pick up 'extra' benefits. Enough of that occurs as it is without worsening the problem..
China pays their lower enlisted people the equivalent of $5/mo.. It's not a volunteer army either. Trying to emulate China's treatment of their military would be incredibly stupid - unless you're OK non-voluntarily serving 4 years yourself & getting paid $5/mo.?
Their universal, govt provided health care system - to which you apparently aspire - really sucks, as far as quality of care & access to care.
+1. We taxpayers buy Pell grants for kids to get brainwashed into hating the very people paying their tuition. Classic..
you're a moron. Dude is quoting "A Few Good Men"
great point. When a horde of 2M Chinese soldiers come screaming over the hill, let's send out our ballet dancers and models to stop them.
Your daddy must be so proud of you..
I agree completely. We really don't need a military at all...until we need them
Millions of prior enlisted servicemen have either left the military or retired & gone on to gainful employment or started their own businesses. As a small business owner myself, I'd leap at the chance to hire a 20 something year old veteran over some over educated, confidentally ignorant typical 20 something yr old college grad wiseass with zero to offer and no history of meeting difficult challenges. I've interviewed recent college grads with business degrees from prestigious colleges and they are almost always totally full of sh&t, lacking in professionalism & maturity, yet inexplicably smugly superior acting.
Give me a HS educated veteran who is willing to work & learn and he/she will outperform college boy 90% of the time..
"There is no other employment with standards so low and guarantees for coninued employment so strong."
Hey, let's leave union teachers out of this!
yeah, except we don't and won't ever need a military like the current military. i know you are emotionally biased due to being related to or a soldier yourself, but come on man, don't form your opinions on emotion.
the only really accurate point you made is about employee health insurance contributions...but surely we must blame greedy health insurance companies & "the rich" for that.. Ironic that the govt taking over healthcare in the name of making it affordable is actually having the opposite effect.
ooo great - let's send the enginners & scientists out to fight the horde of Red Chinese, once the ballet dancers & models get mowed down.
Keep the great suggestions coming, asshat
I'm not a Bush fan, but to claim he didn't campaign as an ex-prez - like Clinton & Carter - because he's 'in hiding' is stupid. Clinton loves to hear himself talk and loves his role as the brilliant ex-prez kingmaker and carter is still trying to shape his legacy into something other than being the 2nd worst prez in modern history. Both are extremely narcississtic. Bush never enjoyed campaigining & is likely tickled pink to be out of that.
fair enough - but let's cut smartly. Picking on some enlisted dude barely making minimum wage doesn't make sense. The military justifies the low wages by offering the GI bill, pension, etc.
Let's force S Korea, Saudi Arabia & Western Europe to pay for their own defense.
But let's take a hard look at China's massive buildup. Who do you think they're preparing to fight?? We need to be ready for that.
stop hating america wrote:
If it wasn't for the military, those Iraqi and Afghanistan insurgents would be over here, murdering people in their beds at night. For each dollar spent on the military, hundreds of lives are saved...
How many hundreds? Well, let's be conservative and say just two hundred. Then the 2012 US military budget of $711 Billion will be saving over 140 Trillion lives!
Imagine that. And in just a single year!
No wonder the world is getting overpopulated.
Not Ron Hill wrote:
bright idea wrote:To everyone on this thread talking about military personnel being overpaid: Go to Afghanistan for 6 months, leaving your wife/husband and kids at home, and then talk about how salaries should be cut. Remember, these soldiers are sacrificing themselves for you. They sacrifice even if they come home safely. Try living one day with this reality and see if your opinion changes.
Sorry Yanks, as we found, when money drains from a nation, power also drains.
A nation that loses control of its finances, loses control of its destiny.
We ran the world for a century, even occupied a quarter of the world’s surface and its peoples, because we were also the richest country in the world.
It all fell apart when we could no longer economically afford the huge cost.
The US ‘defence’ budget is 41% of the total amount the WHOLE world spends on arms.
This compared to the 8.2% the Chinese spend and the 4.1% the Russians spend.
This in a country that has a national debt of over $16 trillion and has to borrow over $1 trillion every year, just to stay afloat.
Ever heard of the Potemkin Villages?
A lot of the interest on your national debt actually goes to pay for the Chinese Red Army, as they hold so much US debt.
When was the last time the USA was actually under threat from any nation in the world that would justify such a huge military budget?
The catch-22 situation with such a huge military machine, is one is irresistibly tempted to use it in frivolous enterprises, against the vital interests of the people of the USA - as with Iraq and Afghanistan.
And at the same time, unbelievably, avert your eyes for years and years to the bona fide threat to your society - from south of your own border.
Interesting, I saw some time ago that for their 2010 defence budget of $46.35 billion, the Russians managed to produce over 1 million active duty troops, 3310 main battle tanks, 557 attack helicopters, 134 submarines and 3141 combat ready aircraft.
I can only surmise they don’t spent too much on their servicemen’s pay or pensions.
CHRIS MATTHEWS wrote:
I agree there are military cuts to be made, but why cut a guy's $20k salary? Why not close a few dozen (or a few hundred) overseas bases?
There might be some people in the military who make $20k, but the ones people are disucssing are the many more who are pulling in $130k tax free. How, you ask? How much does a captain (yeah, 5 yrs out of college) serving at the navy base in Bahrain make? About that much. They're considered in a 'war zone' because of the support role they play and accordingly get the pay bumps and tax free status. Pretty, sweet deal right?
Now consider how high up the food chain you'd have to be to be in the same country working in the private sector to pull that kind of after tax money.
Hypothetical situation for the OP as he graduates from college.
OP: It's really hard to find a job with this degree in liberal arts. What does the military offer me?
Recruiter: Well, the good news is we have openings. Your pay will start at about $1,500 a month.
OP: Umm. I can do better than that flipping burgers.
Recruiter: It gets better. After 4 years, you'll be making $27,000/year, and you'll get to retire in 20 years.
OP: Well, that sounds better... it's a 40 hour/week job right?
Recruiter: (Trying to hide laughter) Yeah, pretty much... there may be some times you have to pull an all-nighter or work 70+ hours/week indefinitely, though.
OP: I'll get paid overtime right?
Recruiter: No
OP: Do I get to choose the city where I work?
Recruiter: No
OP: Do I get to choose the country where I work?
Recruiter: No.
OP: Do I get to choose the job that I do?
Recruiter: No
OP: Do I get to choose when I move from one location to another?
Recruiter: No
OP: Can my family move with me?
Recruiter: If it's a dangerous location, no.
OP: Anything else I should know?
Recruiter: You may have to kill people.
OP: What? Um, okay. Anything else?
Recruiter: Lots of people will be trying to kill or maim you. There's also a chance that you will be emotionally scarred for life or suffer a permanent loss of arms or legs.
OP: But there's a great pension, right?
Recruiter: Yah... it's a great pension.
OP: Sign me up!
I find that hard to believe. I was an 0-2 in the early 90s & made well under half $130k. I doubt an 0-3 makes that now.
That said, the average fed govt salary has risen to 6 figures. What a joke. If we're gonna cut some jobs & paychecks, why not look at federal civilian employees?
+1