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Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

chrisseaton.com

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Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#321

Post by YATA1 »

losvedir wrote: post #245
YATA1 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>especially in the upper classes where people do not need to serve This is a often repeated myth. The upper class serves more per capita than the lower class.

Do you have a source for that? The nearest I could find was this[0] and it doesn't support your assertion. [0] https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military

"Enlisted recruits in 2006 and 2007 came primarily from middle-class and upper-middle-class backgrounds. Low-income neighborhoods were underrepresented among enlisted troops, while middle-class and high-income neighborhoods were overrepresented." [0]

"Military recruits mirror the U.S. population and are solidly middle class.

A recent report shows that more recruits come from middle-income families, with far fewer drawn from poorer families. Youth from upper-income families are represented at almost exactly their fair share."

Your source is inaccurate because it's for enlisted only. Upper class are far more likely to be officers or warrant officers.

My point stands: upper class serve more than lower class.

[0] https://www.heritage.org/defense/report/who-serves-the-us-mi...

[1] https://www.military.com/join-armed-forces/whos-joining-mili...

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#322

Post by YATA1 »

coldtea wrote: post #273
YATA1 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>especially in the upper classes where people do not need to serve This is a often repeated myth. The upper class serves more per capita than the lower class.

Yeah, just not in any combat duty, except the rare ocassion. Combat is for the lower classes, preferably rural poor

>Yeah, just not in any combat duty

That is false. Middle and upper class are more likely to serve in combat roles than lower class.

>Combat is for the lower classes, preferably rural poor

Complete opposite actually.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#323

Post by YATA1 »

throwaway0x7E6 wrote: post #193
YATA1 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>especially in the upper classes where people do not need to serve This is a often repeated myth. The upper class serves more per capita than the lower class.

sure, but not in combat roles and while sure, those 6 or 8 or whatever out of 10 army people per 1 grunt do contribute a lot, they don't get shot at. no risk, all reward

>sure, but not in combat roles

That is false. Middle and upper class are more likely to serve in combat roles than lower class.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#324

Post by oh_sigh »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #200
oh_sigh wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is education difficult to obtain? America is the #6th most educated country in the world, when viewed from the perspective as percentage of population having at least some tertiary schooling: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/30/the-10-most-educated-countri...

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SLOAS https://hbr.org/2019/09/what-will-it-take-to-solve-the-stude... https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Debt-Trap/Josh-Mi... https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089750113/student-loan-debt-...

People having a lot of student loan debt doesn't imply that education is hard to obtain. Having a low percentage of your population with tertiary degrees would show that. But that is not the case in the US.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#325

Post by simonh »

mardifoufs wrote: post #310
simonh wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The situation in Iraq is tough but no, I don’t think it’s obvious to me it would be better off still under Saddam Hussein, or maybe by now one of his sons. If you wonder what a dynastic succession like that can look like, check out Syria, and the young Assad is a pusseycat compared to Uday or Qusay.

There was no dynastic succession in syria, if anything the baathist regime shows how weirdly resilient it is even when faced with insane pressure. Keep in mind the iraqi baathist party was much more popular in iraq that assad is in syria. Also, no matter how violent a hypothetical baathist succession crisis would be, it would not have come close to what happened due to the invasion. If anything, the iraqi war was the…

> The "saving iraq from it's dictator" narrative only came after the WMD lies became evident.

True, none of which can be laid at the feet of the British army. I’m no fan of Blair but I’m not sure to what extent he knew it was all flimflam either.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#326

Post by aksss »

scottlamb wrote: post #290
sdoering wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. I am always stunned reading accounts like this. I can't imagine living in a country where you loose health care when loosing a job or going into retirement. I have to admit reading posts like yours makes me realize how lucky I feel with the German system. And yes. I am well aware of the monthly costs that brings in terms of around 14% of my salary for health insurance. And of the limitations. But to me this stil…

It's a terrible system, and it was more terrible before Obamacare. In general when someone retires they're old enough to be eligible for Medicare (government-sponsored health care). My dad was. But my mom was just enough younger that she wasn't eligible for Medicare when he retired. There were (and still are) all kinds of weird gaps like this.

Obamacare created new gaps that absolutely sucked - made over 58k and self employed? No subsidies for you and paying a skyrocketing premium higher than any reasonable home mortgage with a 10k deductible. Completely unrealistic. And then the IRS hit you for thousands in penalties via the individual mandate.

I lived through that, uninsured, for five years or so as a business owner - to “rich” to get subsidies, too poor to afford 20k+ per year for nothing except a theoretical out-of-pocket max (I say theoretical because there are many exceptions, loopholes, and the annual reset). Being hammered by the IRS for this was.. just.. swell.

So for me Obamacare sucked because it made the cost of individual market plans completely unaffordable and then taxed me for not being able to afford it. As a business owner responsible for employing others, it seemed especially ridiculous because here was a strong disincentive for me to continue on, which would mean a negative ripple effect beyond just me, i.e. layoffs, if I shuttered the operation.

Once the individual mandate went away, and some new options for employer cost sharing like QSEHRA/ICHRA came about, it has gotten a bit more manageable, but most small business owners I know still struggle with healthcare. Cost sharing programs like CHM are about the only workable alternative but they don’t offer the kind of bankruptcy protection a solid insurance premium would cover, and they are religious by nature. Alternatively, DNR and a term life insurance policy.

Best option is to be married, have spouse work for the man to get into corporate group plan for family, while you grow your business enough to sustain an insurance scheme.

But it sucks out there on the individual market - the raw actuarial numbers to insure you are bad - and subsidies disappear quickly with any amount of AGI. Since the vast majority of Americans are on employer-paid healthcare plans, this is a view into it that most don’t see. The cynical side of me (as a small business owner) says this is by design to keep you working for corporate America - consolidation of labor, consolidation of the profits. For me, Obamacare further entrenched this aspect of the system, which has become more terrible, not less.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#327

Post by simonh »

Imnimo wrote: post #115
simonh wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it does. Was Afghanistan better off before the pull out, or now under the Taliban? Iraq is a mess, sure, but at least nobody is gassing whole cities and we can be immensely proud of the liberation of Kuwait although that was more than 20 years ago. Right now we are providing vital military assistance to Ukraine, and I wish we were doing a lot, lot more. The failures were political ones. Militarily the army did th…

>The failures were political ones. When you sign up to join the military, you are signing up to enforce those political decisions. You are not only signing up to "defend its people and friends." I would find this sort of article much more convincing if the author took an honest accounting of what it is that a military does. He has chosen to enable and participate in all aspects of British military activity, not just…

That is correct, but by and large I think the army is used mainly for those purposes. Not perfectly or without error, but mainly.

In any case defending our citizens and allies is a task that needs to be done no matter how much we wring our hands about the consequences. If we want it done more competently it’s on us to elect more competent governments, not the army.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#328

Post by dfxm12 »

remarkEon wrote: post #291
coldtea wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, just not in any combat duty, except the rare ocassion. Combat is for the lower classes, preferably rural poor

>Combat is for the lower classes, preferably rural poor (Former 11A here) This kind of glosses over a lot of cultural reasons for why you find "rural poor" in combat branches. For a lot of the folks in my platoon, it was a family affair. Many were from e.g. Texas or Georgia, and had a brother/cousin/uncle/whatever who were also an 11B/13B etc. There isn't really a "preference" that the Army or Marine Corps has for po…

The parent poster is talking about "rural poor", i.e., socioeconomic class, not "dumb hicks", i.e. perceived intelligence/education level. I think this is an important distinction.

Yes, this is anecdata, and yes, there are many reasons why people serve, but I know some smart people (from college and in my career) who've served (in infantry) because they saw it as their only way to get money for college. I think that says less about military recruiting tactics than the government overall, because there really should be more options presented to someone looking to get an education to move up the socioeconomic ladder.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#329

Post by brandmeyer »

oneoff786 wrote: post #280
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #209

If I knew my country's armed forces were 100% a domestic defense and emergency response force, I would absolutely have considered signing up when I was young. You learn good skills, and I see great value in some larger-than-self contribution to community there. My father is German and left Germany for good not long after doing his compulsory 1 year service. He hated it, and it was one of many factors that led to him…

Yeah. I’ve grown up starkly anti military due to the kinds of fights the American military has fought in my lifetime. It’s been evil. Plain and simple. And yet, I’m glad we have a strong military given happenings in Ukraine. I would strongly support putting boots on the ground. To have the training necessary to join the volunteer defense forces in Ukraine or something similar resonates as a valuable, important skill.…

In the US, the military doesn't choose the targets. Elected civilians do. The way to square those feelings is to direct them at the people who give the top-level orders, and the rhetoric used to support those orders to the public.

There is an entire branch of ethics and philosophy dedicated to the topic: Just War Theory. The US interventions in Serbia and Kuwait were both well-justified in my eyes.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#330

Post by cassepipe »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #74

My son was Army Reserve (US), did a tour in Iraq back in the day. He reported that Reservists didn't get the respect of regular Army, at least in his unit. They got shot at, shot back, did convoy duty, got blown up (twice). But somehow not 'real soldiers'. His unit got no commendations or promotions from the regular army base commander. He returned, still had enlistment period left, went straight to the Army Recruiti…

So he almost died in the unlawful invasion of a foreign country but his complaint is the he did not get a medal or a promotion ?
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