Posted on 04/21/2014 9:57:37 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It may come as an unwelcome surprise to conservatives, but America’s military has one of the only working models of collective living and social welfare the country has ever known.
Every day before dawn, brave men and women of different races and backgrounds rise as one, united by a common cause. They march together in formation, kept in step by their voices joined in song. These workers leave their communal housing arrangements and go toil together “in the field.” While they are out doing their day’s labor, their young are cared for in subsidized childcare programs. If they hurt themselves on the job, they can count on universal health care. Right under your nose, on the fenced-in bases you drive past on your way to work or see on the TV news, a successful experiment in collectivization has been going on for years.
In an era defined by 13 years of continuous war, most Americans still seem to regard the U.S. military as a mysterious and remote way of life. Then a tragedy involving a soldier or veteran happens, and reliably experts come forward to explain the strange customs of the folkloric troop in its native habitat. Shame that so many of the experts seem to have barely a clue what the military is really like. They’ve studied it from a distance without getting a real feel for the customs and characteristics of the culture they’re eager to explain.
It probably comes as a surprise to many, but the army may have more in common with Norway than Sparta....
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Bingo....
And that is FACT...not supposition....
You are wrong...
While it’s been awhile since I was in, it was very prevalent even back then that many women, who at that time were assigned to support ships (tenders, etc.) only, notoriously got pregnant before a deployment to get out of it, after which many had abortions once assigned to shore duty. Stats on this were pretty astonishing even back then...
Well ... Hmm
Sugar daddies?
The military is the antithesis of a feminine manipulator
It does not exist without self reliant hard working people in it top to bottom and support people
The military does not give up its virtue in order to exist.
Of course it takes money. It works hard and dangerous
What am I wrong about?
Navy enlisted did this. And what amoral things did the navy enlisted guys do? Is it something you could hang on all military men, as
The writer did?
You waste my time. Misogynist
Very few married E.M. below E-4 or E-5 when I was in too, those few were in poverty then too. 1963-1967.
P.S. Unless their wives had very good jobs or parents who helped support them.
Once society abandons free pricing of production goods rational production becomes impossible. Every step that leads away from private ownership of the means of production and the use of money is a step away from rational economic activity. ...
Without calculation, economic activity is impossible. Since under Socialism economic calculation is impossible, under Socialism there can be no economic activity in our sense of the word. In small and insignificant things rational action might still persist. But, for the most part, it would no longer be possible to speak of rational production. In the absence of criteria of rationality, production could not be consciously economical.
from:
Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis
by Ludwig von Mises (1st published in 1951)
PART II THE ECONOMICS OF A SOCIALIST COMMUNITY, Chapter 5, The Nature of Economic Activity
Page 105 in the pdf:
http://mises.org/books/socialism.pdf
There is no pricing mechanism whatsoever in the military. We only have to recall the episode of $10,000 toilet seats to know this is true. Even human lives are not costed out like they would be in the free economy. Socialism does not work “up to a point”, because at every point it must employ coercion and the credible threat of violence to achieve compliance.
You need another cup of coffee....
Women get pregnant, last time I checked. As enlisted personnel make up the majority of service members, the stats deal primarily with the function of enlisted personnel...
And assuming everyone on this thread is male is really myopic on your part...
You really need to see someone about anger management....cheers.
Stats? Personal observation is approved stats?
Well, until you have to resort to personal attacks
Enough
Everybody here is so damn critical of anything that even remotely seems to impugn the sensibilities of anything connected with the military. It’s so frustrating. I been there, too - 8+years. I know what it’s like. You cannot suffer even some indulgence and license in describing a civilian corollary to how the military is funded, it had nothing to do with military being perceived as ‘feminine.’
Just another damned argument for argument’s sake.
It seemed that people waited until E-5 (promotable) or E-6 to start a family back then.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
I was in 56-64 and one needed permission to get married under E5 but even then you needed permission inasmuch as if you weren’t getting married ‘overnight’ you had to put in a leave chit and give them a reason for leave.
Like we used to say ‘If they wanted us to have a wife she would have been included in the Sea Bag’.
Had a few married under E5 but was definitely NOT the norm.
On the permission thing, you may have gotten away with getting married under E5 BUT you still had to go through your command to get an allotment etc.
Also, the Draft was in effect but I think if you had ‘under age’ children you were pretty much exempt - at least during peace time.
Two things ‘happened’ in my family that you would NEVER see today...when I turned 16 ‘State Farm’ dropped my Mothers automobile policy because I was 16 (without a drivers license) and living at home AND the same period she tried to join the AF (she was a Registered Nurse) and she was a ‘single’ Mother (Divorced) with me and a sister (14) to support - granted, she was probably between 35-40 and that may have had something to do with it also.
The military doesn’t create any of the wealth they consume. It’s not socialism... The reason for the ‘care’ is our military protects the rest of us - and we take away as many of their everyday worries as possible in exchange. Again, that’s NOT socialism.
The author of that tripe is an idiot, and misses the salient point in the argument. Military members willing enter into an agreement to live that way, and may willingly leave when their contract is done. On the other hand, the general population is being forced in to socialism at the barrel of a gun, with no way to opt out.
If military health care, paycheck, and retirement pension is "socialism" then so is Medicare and Social Security. The latter will say "I EARNED that! I PAID into it!"
Agree. Fair enough. But by the very definition, it is "socialism" if the military paycheck is considered "socialism." If a doctor is earning his six figure income from 95% of his patients being insured through Medicare, then he is a beneficiary of "socialism" as well. And on and on.
“A lot of things are socialistic in nature, but then again, people volunteer for them.”
Money quote! You volunteer to join the military where at 0500 someone snaps on the lights, everyone rolls out, hits the deck, “knees to the breeze in five”, in formation & it’s line up for urinalysis even before PT & breakfast.
But that’s part of the game, & you accept it. Sooner or later you’re retired & all that is over & in the past.
Geez, how I miss it.
You nail the distinctions within the superficial similarities. I grew up as a military dependent during the most intense, mid game era of the cold war - Cuban missile crisis to the Yom Kippur War. There were aspects of a collective (hierarchical, NOT egalitarian) but it was no ‘paradise’. Service members and their families lived demanding and stressful lives, but with a great deal of grace and strength.
Yes, Kos is supposedly a veteran.
Yet he rails at us every chance he gets.
I did 20+ and I’ve seen it happen more than many realize.
The women have it especially easy due to their reproductive ability. Pregnancy lands them on a profile almost immediately. Office detail or some other light duty interspersed with numerous maternity appointments.
Males have to be more creative, but there are jobs within some branches and careers that for all intents and purposes should be eliminated but are nice little hideaways where little to no “work” is ever performed.
I worked as a jet engine mechanic and the number of females in the field was about what one would expect. However, the number of females actually working on the line was practically 0. They worked in the tool crib or the parts room or the Chief’s secretary pool...then again, I didn’t know any who could throw a TF-39 CSD and Generator over their shoulder and stick it in a gearbox either.
What many fail to realize is that there are supervisors (NCOs) who are afraid or unwilling to do their jobs and write referral performance reports for losers who shouldn’t see the end of their enlistment contract...these NCOs who are careerists, not wanting to dirty their hands for fear of impeding their career aspirations are, IMO, what is going wrong with the military.
But then they are compelled by upper leadership to pursue degrees, whole person concept, off base volunteerism, etc. in order to have a chance at promotion or senior rater endorser on a performance report that helps the promotion chances of the individual.
Ping, just for you so you can drool and slavishly shriek at us who served.
The military is not socialist- if it were an independent entity as the title suggests it would be bankrupt in a minute.
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