Hey, maybe I'm just old . . okay yeah, but here's the deal:
What is the point of this?
Can you tell from the article how long this has been going on? I mean, financial and educational incentives?
Not really.
Does it make it seem, however, that what is making folks join the service is "the money"?
How about this: Does it say how much an enlisted man makes? Starting at the lowest grade? E-1? Starting off, you make between 14-16k a year. Generally speaking, 2000 hours is a year's worth of work at 40 hours a week. And granted, you get room and board. But note, with the exception of Air Force food, which we Army guys thought was heelariously good compared to ours, you eat bad cafeteria food and MREs. Is that really how you'd spend your money? For the most part, most folks wouldn't live like that, so it's not worth comparable civilian housing.
Anyway, that 16k a year works out to be about 8 bucks an hour . . . IF you only work 40 hours a week. And funny thing . . . when I joined up, that next year my sister went to live out with my Uncle in California. She got a job for $8 bucks an hour in 1985 in Oakland. I figured out my HOURLY wage at 40 hours a week (which was the time I was in class, not to mention pt (physical training) and study time . . . Persian Farsi don't learn itself . . ) was . . . about 5-6 bucks an hour. She got free room and board at my Uncle's place. So who was the sucker? Hmmm.
When I was in Army "school" this was pretty normal. But it doesn't include the times you have overnight duty, even there. Or when you're in your permanent duty station, when within the first 3 weeks I was out in the desert for two weeks. Or if you're on a Navy ship, out in the big blue . . . are you really "off duty"? I mean, maybe? Oh, and what's minimum wage? Yeah, it'll be seven bucks an hour next year. Whoohooo Navy boys!! Don't spend it all in one place!! How about when I was deployed out in the woods for a week. I wasn't "working" 24/7
So yeah, just a bit better than minimum wage. AND you get to live with navy guys!! AND you can't change jobs if you want. AND people can yell at you. AND . . . have I mentioned the "death" part of it? Yeah. Your job is to KILL the other guy while avoiding his attempts to KILL you. So sometimes you're not actively doing that, but that's aaaaaaall you practice . . .
And lets not forget . . . I can only speak from my experience, but they were offering bonuses and educational benefits . . . oh, 20 years ago to meet recruiting goals. Eeeeeyup. It's how I paid for college and I got a bit of a bonus for my specialty. So yeah, you get some schmundo. It's not like it's not taxable and if you've ever gotten a bonus, you know how that works . . . hello withholding!!! And not at your tax rate . . . but at the tax rate you'd have if you got that bonus check EVERY week. So yeah, EVEN when they know exactly how much you'll make the rest of the year . . . they ding you like you're Donald Trump. Puh-lease.
If we have to pay a one time bonus and educational funds for our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. It's money well spent. How much did we spend on Amtrak last year? Just askin' is all . . .
3 comments:
Right there with you, TP. It's ridiculous what people find to cry about these days...
Dan,
No kidding. I mean, it seemed they were saying: "Well, the only reason people enlisted was this money!"
But they failed to give the background of "Armed Forces have been giving enlisted bonuses for 20 years!!" Of course that really would have rendered the entire story kind of funny: "In peace and in war, the army recruits the same way!!" Now, you can argue the merits, but that's not what's being done here.
but... I don't drink lattes....
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