It should be pointed out that the vast majority of the military are in support career fields, not combat units. Also, the GI Bill absolutely makes it worth it.
Yeah less than ten percent is combat trained and tasked and only a tenth of them (so 1% of the total) are combat veterans.
Most of the people you’ve thanked for their service probably worked at a job that civilians do everyday like fixing things or doing paperwork. Just in a uniform.
My primary job was a logistics account, but that meant I had to inventory high value items at Forward Operating Bases in Iraq and Afghanistan and I drove in a few convoys, only once anything significant happened.
Generally speaking, a military career is the best means of advancement in social class for Americans. You’ll easily move up the middle class and likely upper middle class or upper class depending on time served.
Not everyone is willing to be a public servant. Of all the things from Starship Troopers, that is something I liked. I’m a fan of granting a free college education to public servants, military or govt employees after four years of service.
Citizenship isn’t a perk of military service in the United States, you don’t have to be a citizen to serve but you still earn the benefits.
Too bad the movie just glossed over the whole “Anyone can be a citizen, no matter who you are or what you can do physically” so they could make a satire on military fascism instead.
The conversation Rico has with the “anti-recruiter” is the only point you need to show how ridiculously out of context the movie was, it clearly demonstrates not just a lack of nationalism but its opposite. A concerted attempt by the state to stop getting people to sign up because they don’t have the resources or need for the amount of people that want to join.
It was a clear indication that Heinlein understood the dangers of the ever growing military industrial complex, and how a reliance on it economically will result in constant warfare to justify its existence.
No one cares though, they just quote propaganda that wasn’t even in the book (since it doesn’t fit with the book’s theme at all) and pretend that Heinlein was absolutely devoted to the ideas presented in the novel. The dude wrote about so many different kinds of societies that it’s almost impossible to define what his actual beliefs were.
It should be pointed out that the vast majority of the military are in support career fields, not combat units. Also, the GI Bill absolutely makes it worth it.
Yeah less than ten percent is combat trained and tasked and only a tenth of them (so 1% of the total) are combat veterans.
Most of the people you’ve thanked for their service probably worked at a job that civilians do everyday like fixing things or doing paperwork. Just in a uniform.
My primary job was a logistics account, but that meant I had to inventory high value items at Forward Operating Bases in Iraq and Afghanistan and I drove in a few convoys, only once anything significant happened.
And the VA loan. That’s how I got my house!
Plus all the intangible benefits of being ‘prior service.’ Certainly has been useful in my real career.
Generally speaking, a military career is the best means of advancement in social class for Americans. You’ll easily move up the middle class and likely upper middle class or upper class depending on time served.
Problem is for people with fundamental incompatibility with the military, either disability or personality clash with authority
Even civilian work parallel to the military can be hard to access in those circumstances
Service Guarantees Citizenship
Would you like to know more?
Not everyone is willing to be a public servant. Of all the things from Starship Troopers, that is something I liked. I’m a fan of granting a free college education to public servants, military or govt employees after four years of service.
Citizenship isn’t a perk of military service in the United States, you don’t have to be a citizen to serve but you still earn the benefits.
Too bad the movie just glossed over the whole “Anyone can be a citizen, no matter who you are or what you can do physically” so they could make a satire on military fascism instead.
The conversation Rico has with the “anti-recruiter” is the only point you need to show how ridiculously out of context the movie was, it clearly demonstrates not just a lack of nationalism but its opposite. A concerted attempt by the state to stop getting people to sign up because they don’t have the resources or need for the amount of people that want to join.
It was a clear indication that Heinlein understood the dangers of the ever growing military industrial complex, and how a reliance on it economically will result in constant warfare to justify its existence.
No one cares though, they just quote propaganda that wasn’t even in the book (since it doesn’t fit with the book’s theme at all) and pretend that Heinlein was absolutely devoted to the ideas presented in the novel. The dude wrote about so many different kinds of societies that it’s almost impossible to define what his actual beliefs were.
This is interesting! I haven’t read the book. Can you elaborate on the point of the Rico and anti-recruiter conversation?