Two questions for you:
1. Does the military need people who stay in longer than say, 4 to 6 years, that is a LONG term commitment of decades in uniform?
2. Thank you for your service! How long did you serve? What did you think about staying in, when it as time to get out?
The point is. some say those people who stay in are worthless lifers, who couldn’t make it on the outside. Others say, no they are the true backbone of the military, and their dedication, experience and knowledge is what makes the US military as good as it is. Most of the benefits you’ve cited are really there for those who commit to stay several decades rather than go back to being civilians and seeking their own personal desires and potential fortunes.
I served for 22 years. Sometimes I wish I had not, and had the opportunity to settle down, buy a house, build a lucrative career, etc. But I didn’t, and they, meaning the US Air Force and government, offered me a CONTRACT of things to stay in. I did. How is this CONTRACT like welfare, when I fulfilled all of MY obligations to it, down to the very letter of the agreement?
Please do not see this as an argument on my part; one to be lost or won, but rather another perspective on the thinking of another party to the scenario you’ve described.
To your #1 Of course a professional military needs a small core of combat professionals who are career. A 20-year pensioned stint in the motor pool is not something everyone is entitled to. We can’t afford it.
To your #2 Please do not thank me for doing my duty. I served, I moved on.
The military of the last 20+ years has been the most political, politically correct ever. We’ve engaged in conflicts that did not need to be extended conflicts - if we even needed to be involved at all.
We can’t even cut our military down to a $500B a year budget without howls of entitlement. Then it is claimed there is no way to field an effective force for that much (little?) money. Nonsense.
Let’s talk about your CONTRACT. Who pays? where does the money come from? How many like you were promised someone elses money to be paid some time in the future?
We have so many people who were promised things from the US Government that we can’t possibly pay everyone everything. DO you think you deserve a multi-million dollar pension package for your service? If so how do we pay for yours and everyone elses multi-million dollar pensions - both in and out of the military.
It would be nice if we had, above all, a vibrant private sector that could pay all of the promises made by others that were in your CONTRACT and in everybody elses entitlement obligations. We do not have a vibrant private sector. We cannot pay everybody everything. We won’t pay everybody everything. Pretending we can and will doesn’t make it so.
You make it sound like fortune awaits everybody who works in the private sector, and that government prevents you from achieving that fortune - so all who work in government deserve to have a multi-million dollar package of pension benefits - and to extract that from the folks in the private sector to get it (because we’re all rich in the private sector, and can afford it).
We are not. Most folks in the private sector would be fine if they didn’t have to pay the massive tab for outsized government - including government pension promises in your CONTRACT and other promises and benefits.
Do you know what happens when you can’t pay a CONTRACT in the private sector? Default. If you think that does not apply to government promises you are mistaken.
I agree with you - it is NOT an argument to be won or lost between us. ALL government promises for future checks have to come from present revenues + borrowing. When the present revenues cannot support the obligations and the borrowing, the checks stop (or inflate away).
There are tens of millions who think the government will continue to have the ability to pay them.
I think that is an assumption that is not based on the fiscal realities before us. Maybe I’m wrong and we can continue to punish and squeeze the private sector with taxes while also borrowing vast amounts of money without penalty.
THAT is the discussion we need to have.
This affects me, because I have recommended enlistment to more than a few. Selecting those fit for combat, then burning them out, and then dumping them; that's the pattern. Throw in all sorts of affirmative action nincompoopery ...especially among the higher enlisted ranks, and it ain't a pretty military picture.
The military is chewing up a lot of good young fel;lows and then spittin'em out. Don't understand it.