The U.S. Military Is a Socialist Paradise

The Daily Beast ^ | April 21, 2014 | Jacob Siegel

[GeronL]

If the military were a country it would be bankrupt in a minute with the engine of capitalism to fund it

[NorthMountain]

OK ... I agree with that.

The military is an extremely important ... essential ... mandatory, even ... cost of doing business in this fallen world.

[stanne]

Here's the title of the article: 'The U.S. Military Is a Socialist Paradise' Here's the irrelevant comment to which you are replying: 'Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies '‎4‎/‎22‎/‎2014‎ ‎12‎:‎34‎:‎01‎ ‎AM · 16 of 62 wetphoenix to stanne What about ladies getting pregnant the moment there is a deployment abroad? Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15' There are silly people throughout society. Your reply and the original comment has nothing to do with the topic of the article. The military as a whole functions to protect our country as the congress and the voters who put them there see fit. As there are women who take advantage there are menwho do so, not to mention the men who take advantage of active duty females looking to get out of a job. For every pregnant female looking to skip out, there is some guy who couldn't care less about her commitment, nor the military. So, let's have enough of this dope talk

[SZonian]

I replied to your statements...and sorry, you don’t get to tell me what to post, when and where.

And for every pregnant female that is NOT available to do her job, it only increases the workload of the able bodied and increases the resentment amongst them.

Quite socialist, don’t you think?

[stanne]

For every pregnant military member, there is a guy willing to forget about family, and treat her like a birth controlled sex object and dump her and the children back onto the taxpayers.

Do you want to talk about socialist?

[stanne]

It used to be people looked to men fro responsible behavior as well. Now with birth control being the expectation and women being the responsible party for that, idiots.
However, there is plenty of blame to go around if women are doing this.

It’s where men just cannot get off the hook for acting like animals.

For every pregnant female there is a gy. If the kids are taken care of it’s because there’s a father and husband If they are not, it’s because some dopey guy is expecting to have sex with no consequences. And because of some dopey guy getting involved with an amoral woman.

It is socialism.

That’s not what the article was intended to speak about, but I’ll talk about it if people push it.

[ansel12]

In the past, militaries have self funded, and it wasn’t pretty, of course civilized militaries don’t.

[darkangel82]

You only need to see the source to know that this drivel is not based in fact and the author is an idiot.

[CommieCutter]

I’ve never served but I’m pretty damn sure EVERYONE has a JOB TO DO in the military, unlike Socialism!

[2ndDivisionVet]

Of course they do. Whether it is analyzing intelligence information (what I did) or cooking wholesome meals, scraping rust & paint off the side of a ship, hauling supplies in a truck, engaging with the enemy, word processing, fixing helicopters, loading ammunition or 10,000 other things.

[Carl from Marietta]

You use the term “serve” as if you did this thing which you signed up to do without a paycheck. This slavish “thank you for serving your country” BS is rediculous.

If the military had accomplished a damn thing in the past 11 years except self aggrandizement I might be impressed.

[USAF80]

TF39, Big Fred. They are retrofitting the C5 with CF6s. They don’t have that distinctive shelled out sound of the TF39.

[Rides_A_Red_Horse]

One of the reasons behind our nation's Military success is our Non Commissioned Officers are allowed a high level of autonomy.

Socialism is central planning, command and control. Autonomy is strictly forbidden.

[Darksheare]

Hey, you’re the guy who called us “mercenaries” specifically because we get paid.
You also stated flat out that you hate us.
You also stated that we are dog killing skinheads.
Don’t like being poked about it?
Aww, poor baby.

[Doomonyou]

The U.S. Military Is a Socialist Paradise

Supported and funded by capitalists. It's not self sustaining.

[Billthedrill]

The author is very confused not about the military, but about socialism. There are certainly collectivist aspects to the military as there are with any corporate enterprise, sports team, etc, etc, but not socialist. There is no common ownership of the means of production. Decision making is strictly hierarchical. Funding does not come from its constituents making a contribution to a common pool (except in the broadest sense that they are taxpayers too). Property not held in common, legal system by external authority outside the collective, you could go on and on: it's simply not a socialist model.

I sympathize with the author's suggestion that there is a culture within the military that is very different from its source population but I'd have to ask him to name a society, even a communist one, in which that is not true. Ever. Even in an army populated by inductees, which is as close as one can come to one that properly mirrors its parent society, there are radical differences. "You're in the Army now / you're not behind a plow." Anyone who has ever worn a uniform learns that in the first week.

What the author is attempting to do is to establish a superficial moral equivalency that eases the application of socialist precepts to the country at large. You can certainly hold such ideas in theory; living them is a very different matter indeed.

[Carl from Marietta]

Bite me Moron. I can’t suffer fools gladly.

[Darksheare]

Really?
Please, explain to us all why the military shouldn't get paid?
Make a thread laying it out, show reasons.
Also, did you know that the soldiers who fought the American Revolution got paid?

Heaven forbid!

[2ndDivisionVet]

As an 18 year old buck private E-1, about 5 months out of high school, I ran G-2 early-warning on the Korean DMZ. What company would do that?

[2ndDivisionVet]

Wow. Again? Really?