Posted on 06/16/2011 6:56:24 PM PDT by thesistine
Our Lefty Military By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: June 15, 2011 As we search for paths out of America’s economic crisis, many suggest business as a paradigm for cutting costs. According to my back-of-the-envelope math, top C.E.O.’s earn as much as $1 a second around the clock, partly by cutting medical benefits for employees. So they must be paragons of efficiency, right? Actually, I’m not so sure. The business sector is dazzlingly productive, but it also periodically blows up our financial system. Yet if we seek another model, one that emphasizes universal health care and educational opportunity, one that seeks to curb income inequality, we don’t have to turn to Sweden. Rather, look to the United States military.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I don’t think this argument will be very popular here...
This appears to be either the article or a similar one to what Mark Levin talked about on his show tonight.
Predictably, Kristof doesn’t ask a critical question: would the miltary model work so well if nearly everyone it were a conscript? Also, Kristof also ignores the fact that the military cannot (and is not intended to) support itself financially. We need a vibrant private sector so we can afford an effective military.
You still have to pay for educational benefits and what little the armed forces chip in is taxed and everything will be controlled by a government official.
A military community without accountability is called a welfare state. An uncontrolled Military system is called a dictatorship...Take your choice schmucky.
Here’s the difference.
You EARN those benefits, they aren’t just given to you!
B U M P for intelligence
Odd way to start, posting a thread.
Yep, the military is truly socialist. I remember Wes Clark taking out his wallet every payday and giving his money to the Enlisted Soldiers just to make things fair.
He mentions the transition to VA care. He needs to do a quick google search on issues with the VA. Hell, even the VA is more concerned with pc:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110610/ap_on_he_me/us_transgender_veterans_3
I always find that people that think the VA is so wonderful do not nor would not use the VA.
I experienced the VA with a wounded warrior about 2 yrs. ago. I wanted to cry when I left it was horrible!
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Yeah, and the military will be happy to enlist everyone from the dregs of society, ‘cause all they want is a few meals a day.
The military works because its ranks include those who are willing to fight and die for their country, or those who are willing to support that effort.
You just can’t take that model of training the willing, to recruiting the unwilling to try to fend for themselves.
I’m glad that this asshat realizes that our military is exlemplary, but certainly not for the reasons that he postulates!
Kudos to the Boise VA Center.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
He’s ignoring several things: there is structure in the military for a reason which is self-evident and promotions are based on merit...if you’re a dirtbag, you get thrown out or don’t get promoted, etc, so color, race, creed is not the end all be all (isnt that in contrast to what libs think?); and like GatorGirl pointed out, the benefits are earned....while libs think they should just be given because they are a “right”; which brings me to another point, servicemembers give up their civil rights, a fact he also ignores. But he’s probably ok with all giving up rights if it’s for the common good anyway. I swear it’s like arguing with a stop sign when it comes to liberals.
The husband doesn’t use VA. He got tired of being treated like he was lying about his head nearly being blown off and lost patience, so he uses tricare. I know there are wounded troops who weren’t medically retired that don’t have a choice though. :( Prayers for your son!!
Military service doesn't produce anything it's the only branch of government that truly protects the American people. No other office of government can honestly say that. We gave up so much for this wonderful nation and people so that everyone can enjoy freedom.
Remember, the Military defends democracy, it doesn't practice it.
The greatest gift we can give our children is they will never have to be in a position to risk their lives to protect this nation.
Right on! Thank you, I could not put into words like you! Very well said!
The Helena, Montana, facility was alright.
When I was a child, back in the 70s, I had to go to several different hospitals for tons of medical tests. One of those was the VA hospital. It was the only hospital with a real-time X-ray machine... I got to see my own skull on a monitor screen.
That experience aside, I have always heard bad things about the VA. I suppose it's like most government service agencies--not enough customer service, and too many people trying to get the service.
“The military is not analogous to society as a whole.”
THIS! IS! (not) SPARTAAAAAA!!!!
Ugh....the Weasel would say something like that.
And the article crows about how the military "knits together" all of these differences races and social backgrounds, but believe me, there is every bit as much clannishness in the military as there is in civilian life.
Attend any holiday gathering downrange and you'll see the blacks all off at one table, Asians at another and other clicques forming along racial lines.
I admire and support our armed forces and am very, very grateful for them and for what they do, but the utopia described in this article is no closer to reality than the utopia the liberals envision in other aspects of our society.
I’ve always hung out with a lot of different nationalities. I never caught any grief from the other white guys; but my friends would often catch flack from the latinos, blacks or asians for hanging with a mixed crowd. Fortunately, my friends share my attitude in which I refuse to suffer the presence of idiots.
;-)
I’ve always hung out with a lot of different nationalities. I never caught any grief from the other white guys; but my friends would often catch flack from the latinos, blacks or asians for hanging with a mixed crowd. Fortunately, my friends share my attitude in which I refuse to suffer the presence of idiots.
;-)
I never saw that in my career. It happened alot in the support MOSes I saw, from the outside. But in Combat Arms units that I was in, we never had a problem with it.
I bet I can find an article two that has Kristof bitching about the cost of the DoD socialism.
As I’ve posted here in the past, there were race riots in the rear during the Nam... At times it was safer in the bush with the dinks!
When I first moved to Maine, I was asked if I would sign up at the VA. I replied when I’m dead take me there. They can’t make it any worse.
Not 2 months later I broke a foot and ended up at Togus VA.
I’ve experienced 7 VA hospitals, 5 Military hospitals, and 3 civilian hospitals in my life. I’ve never been treated better than at Togus for the past ten years.
I was taking my friend to the one in Atlanta, horrible. We had to arrive 4 hrs. BEFORE appt. time to make sure we got a parking space. Once there, I walked through those doors and I thought I would scream. There were patients EVERYWHERE! In wheelchairs just shoved in corners. There was a line for Diabetes treatment, the line stretched as far as I could see.
My friend had been hit with an IED, had spinal injury and a TBI, after being seen and being prescribed even more drugs, it was another 3 hr. wait in the pharmacy.
He has had one spinal surgery and was told he must have another one or eventually he would suffer paralysis, he was scheduled for the surgery and it was cancelled by the VA because the Dr. was fired and he would have to get on the list again!!!!
Not True!
Every single time our financial sector blew up it was the government and banks behind it.
When a writer thinks the most stunning achievement of the American military is its day care program, we can expect BS like this.
Finally, the author lists all kinds of reasons people stay in the military when they could be making more in the private sector, all of them coming from a socialist viewpoint, but neglects the most important reason - a sense of duty to ones country.
You shouldn't have posted this comment. Someone from the VA bureaucracy might see it and decide to send in some experts to study and "fix" the problem... /s
Mark Levin talked in detail about a retired policeman and what he and his wife got as union members. Mark reads an e-mail form a retired police officer who exposes the corruption. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDyR1RdV1zM
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