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February 22, 2005
Is this a joke?
Study: Swelling benefits hurt modernization
Someone's actually claiming that the problem with the military is that we're spending too much on personnel and not enough on whiz-bang weapons systems? Is this some sort of parallel universe?
This... cretin... thinks that $14,822 a year for a starting private is just dandy. No, he thinks that it's too much. $14,822 is more than enough to pay someone to go out and get shot at.
Posted by Mac Thomason at February 22, 2005 08:20 AM
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Comments
Hey, if minimum wage is good enough for Wal-Mart...besides, the miltary's benefits are much better than those the Walton family pays.
Back in 1972-1974 I went from E-1 to E-4, and from $240/month to $800/month (not adjusted for inflation).
Posted by: Linkmeister at February 22, 2005 12:10 PM
Now, I can understand dead-end job pay if you're pushing a broom. But having to go into Dick and George's Excellent Arabian Adventure, for $14k?
Good Lord, we're lucky that we have any enlisted personnel left.
Posted by: Jason at February 22, 2005 02:14 PM
If I'm not mistaken, they used to not let you get married under a certain rank. Which with the bennies meant most guys could just get by, I suppose. And I could be totally wrong about this.
And Mac - I read this as saying that they ought to throw even more money at the guys who are getting shot at, and not so much to the desk job guys who do their twenty and "retire" to a private job while collecting their military pension.
But I could be wrong about that too.
Posted by: Del at February 22, 2005 05:12 PM
I read it as wanting to keep "specialists", which would probably include Special Forces guys, but not the rank-and-file footsoldiers. I'd guess that anyone who actually gets shot at has been in long enough to get bumped up from that $14,822/year rate, but still.
Posted by: Mac Thomason at February 22, 2005 05:58 PM