He knows the facts. It is time for some fine tuning, for instance giving low pay during the first enlistment and the first three ranks, and changes in new recruits having families and being female, and changes in treating everyone the same, regardless of MOS.
“Military pay, allowances, and health care costs have risen more than 90 percent since 2001, while the size of the active duty force has grown by less than 3 percent in that same time, according to the Council on Foreign Relations . Today the average total cost per sailor, Marine, soldier, or airman is nearly $115,000 compared with $58,000 in 2001, according to a study from the Center for American Progress. The military retirement system is projected to have an unfunded liability of $2.7 trillion by 2034, according to a Defense Business Board report.
Yes, that was trillion—with a ‘T.’”
http://news.usni.org/2013/07/10/opinion-military-pay-and-benefits-unsustainable
Ansel, you’re wrong. We insist that our first-term enlistees can be married and then we insist that our troops have to be able to support their families while we deploy them six months at a crack.
We either provide the compensation their service requires, or we go back to the draft - or learn Chinese.