this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 122 points 1 year ago (6 children)

35k in 2022 is not a living wage.

[–] [email protected] 120 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It's not the wage. It's an enlistment bonus for shipping out to basic within a short time frame of enlisting. Meant to help fill vacancies in the Army.

[–] [email protected] 67 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nobody wants to join the military because people are tired of going to fight strangers in foreign countries they have no beef with. We're figuring out that our military is actually more of a terrorist organization with veto power in NATO.

Plus you know, people are worried about the impending climate crisis and the future water wars more than the geopolitical dick swinging the military is used to enforce.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago (1 children)

plus all we ever hear about from vets is how this country refuses to take care of them... the abysmal state of veteran care in this country has broken the line in many traditionally long running military families. like, if big papa breadwinner of the traditional southern family comes back broken and unable to work that family just ends up on the street. that alone breaks that chain of what may have been 10 generations of military men. now think of every less extreme scenario and how common they are and how they affects the minds of those children that may have previously been gung-ho to sign up.

veterans these days have little pride over what they accomplished or failed to accomplish, the war stories are hard to make glorious sounding, they all have some severe medical issue caused by the military that the military refuses to acknowledge and/or help them with, so very many homeless veterans...

I'm not at all pro military, but even I can see how ridiculously fucked it is that a man can sign his life away to fight for a county and for that county to not even have the decency to pick him up out of the fucking dirt after...

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

veterans these days have little pride over what they accomplished or failed to accomplish, the war stories are hard to make glorious sounding, they all have some severe medical issue caused by the military that the military refuses to acknowledge and/or help them with, so very many homeless veterans…

I don't disagree with your conclusion but fyi - korean vietnam and 80s conflicts vets very rarely have gung-ho battle glory stories to sell. they experienced as much trauma as iraq/afghanistan vets, there's not a lot of glory to go around. the familial tradition of service is being broken, but the service is also trying to diversify and get away from being 80%+ legacy/ mil family tradition we had in the 90s.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i wasn't trying to be exclusive to only the most recent conflicts. this is a thing that's been developing and getting worse for a long time. i never thought anyone had any proud battle stories from those eras either. pretty much since wwii as far as i can tell...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure, was just mislead by:

veterans these days

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

yeah, that's fair 😅 my phrasing could've been better. that was admittedly a bit of a quickdraw of a comment.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Meant to help fill vacancies in the Army.

I thought it was to help boost sales of Dodge vehicles

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Not to mention clothing, housing, food are all taken care of too. Not to mention perks of military base discounts and programs.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Plus, you abandon all bodily autonomy and you might be wounded or killed.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And even if you're not, the chances of PTSD are astronomical! Not to mention the likelihood of having to do something morally reprehensible.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

hope you enjoyed music in your youth because the vast majority will come home with degrees of hearing loss, most of which the mil will assert happened away from service.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

All bonuses in my book

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

But that barely makes a difference, assuming you stay loyal to tradition and purchase a brand new Charger with 33% apy.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It is when you are in the military and housing, food, and healthcare are paid for. At that point all you REALLY need the 35K for is to buy a V6 Camaro (or Mustang).

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

bah, someone hasn't been on post in the last decade... it's all about 'dem chargers now. fucking chargers, as far as the eye can see..... oh look, there's one getting repo'd now, to later be resold to some e3 on a ridiculous loan! the majesty of nature!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I remember my base tours where they desperately try to accentuate the "for sale" lot your fancy car will inevitably be on in 6 months, unsurprisingly it deterred approx nobody.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

recruiters might be scummy, but the used car salespeople right off post - oof now that's pure evil lol

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That was like twice my wage in 2022 lol.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Well private annual salary is actually $23,011 according to goarmy.com. Idk where the 35k is from, might include a signing bonus or something.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For the vast majority of those enlisting, I'd say the 35k must go towards a down payment on a 4wd, lifted truck (with balls hanging off the back).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

There are so many predatory car dealers around every American base. All the sign say will finance E1 and up. (E1 is the lowest enlisted rank) They know once they get them to sign if the teenager tries to default they can contact their command and put a lien on their pay.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

In a lot of places, yes it definitely is. With 2.5k a month I have a lot of money leftover.