If that is the case, the low pay will cease to be an issue. If you are a single person in the military, you are provided BEQ (basic enlistment quarters) and three meals a day on base. There is really no need to spend much money at all. You have the enlisted club to hang out in and the PX to get your basic items like toothpaste, clothing, etc., at Wal-Mart prices.
If you re-enlist and make a career of the military, then you are now a leader as an NCO or full-fledged officer and you should then be entitled to the higher pay and perks that go with it. You will also be in much better position to support a family.
Part of being broke as a young enlisted men, was that you shared the traditional warriors life of a clustered, military existence.
You shared transportation, lived on base, did most of your drinking on base, when you were talking at the EM club and eating at the mess hall, you were discussing military work, (and females), at night you were shining boots, when you thought about military budgets, you thought of more training, and better weapons, not day care and braces for the kids, and dealing with your landlord and roommates in your beach apartment, and making your car payments.
A more martial beginning in military service would go a long way towards recreating the military as the home of warriors and masculine activity, which in turn, would increase male recruitment, and the sense of being special, and different.
I remember a time when as young GIs, we thought that civilians were sloppy and self indulgent and we felt like we were only visiting them, when we went to town on a Saturday night.