Why DO we?

“Why do they always send the poor?”

Song lyrics from System of a Down’s ‘B.Y.O.B’ …. And a sentiment that I’ve seen in various forms in documentaries and blogs for a while as well as at ‘peace rallies’ and war protests … a certain segment of the population would like to have you believe that there is a conspiracy in this country to send the poor … oh, sorry … the ‘less fortunate’ (see my December 2004 entry ‘It’s the holiday season’ if you want my opinion of that particular term) … off to fight and die.

The fact of the matter is … it is based on a false premise to start with … the United States boasts the largest all volunteer military in the world. The key word there being ‘volunteer’ … there is no draft … no one is forced into the service … they are there because they chose to be there.

Now … can it be said that a majority of the troops come from the ranks of the ‘less fortunate’? Yes, but lets think about why that is…..

First … let’s look at the motivation. The young adult from a family that is scraping by with two parents working minimum wage jobs … To many of these the military represents their best hope of earning a good wage, learning a trade, and coming out with a student loan option that is one of, if not THE, best available to anyone. This is the type of person that has a very large motivation to join the military; it’s likely their only shot at college (unless their grades are exceptional or their sports ability in the top percentage) and even without that the skills learned in the service will likely give them a good advantage in the job market … or they can go career military which also has it’s benefits. Starting pay is likely better than what their parents are making and the benefits are really good.

Now … let’s look at a middle income household. College is more likely option without the military help, though the GI bill is still a consideration. Pay scale is likely less attractive, however, and benefits, while still good, are more likely to be considered ‘average’. There is still some motivation for joining the military, but unless they are from a military family that ‘pull’ is likely to be less than the pull of college and ‘professional’ life.

Now … someone from upper middle or upper income family … college (assuming they have the grades for admission) is almost definitely a ‘given’ without the military assistance, starting pay is unattractive; and benefits are likely to be considered ‘sub-par’ in their experience. There is likely to be very little motivation to join the military; the incentive just isn’t there.

Now … this isn’t scientific by any means … just observational data … but it would make sense to me that the lower the income of the family situation to start with the higher the incentive to join the armed forces … meaning, that a volunteer military is almost certainly to be made primarily of those coming from lower income households with middle income households having the next best showing and upper income households to be virtually absent.

Adding more incentive to the middle and upper income brackets is going to add even more incentive to the low/no income households and therefore likely maintain the relationship between the three brackets.

The only way that you are, realistically, going to get a military that is an even representation is to instate mandatory service; at which point it has ceased to be a volunteer military and become enforced servitude.

Now … let’s look at this from a different angle … let’s assume, for a moment that there is some conspiracy out there to send our ‘poor’ off to war ….

I’m going to be called a cold heartless monster for this, but what’s the problem? Should we take our ‘producers’ and put them on the field of battle? The poor represent the greatest drain on social resources while providing the least benefit to said society. Yes, some of them are hard working and just can’t manage to get ahead, some are truly victims of circumstances beyond their control. Certainly some of the young individuals from these poor households will rise up and become the producers of tomorrow … most of these, however, will distinguish themselves in other ways; either in school or early in their military career (should they volunteer).

Now … I don’t advocate rounding all the poor up and shipping them off to Iraq … that’s not my point. My point is simply that, the military is generally made up primarily of lower and lower middle income families because they are the most likely to see service as a substantial benefit. We are not ‘luring them into service’ we are offering an incentive to serve … anyone has the opportunity to do so and many do. I do not believe that there is now, or ever has been, a president that would wantonly put those that serve in our military into harms way … regardless of the backgrounds of those servicemen. And I would like to think that ‘we the people’ would have enough sense to not put someone into power that would, but maybe I’m too optimistic about the aptitude of the voting public…..

The people questioning the ‘exploitation’ of the poor by the military need to take a step back from their political agenda, stop thinking with their hearts, and use the grey matter between their ears for a change. Do they want a no exemption draft, or maybe 4 years of mandatory service for every high school graduate? No … they don’t want that nor would it be a good idea to fill our military with people that don’t want to be there … it is, however, technically what they are arguing for every time they point out the fact that the military is largely filled with young adults from lower income households….

Okay … I think I’m done rambling on this issue … it’s odd what a song on a radio station will start….