Say Anything Blog

Only a few years ago it was ‘discovered’ that in Vietnam that Blacks did NOT die disproportionally.

In fact it was more dangerous being a college graduate.

That’s because the most dangerous job in the infantry is to be a new lieutenant.  Another group that lost a lot of people was Air Force pilots.

I would imagine that if you researched the actual trades you’d find that whites are even more likely to be in combat.  I heard that blacks are more likely to choose the trades in the military than whites.

Of course all military members are valuable and if you volunteer to be a cook, you’re important. 

Everything the lefties tell us turns out to be a lie.

1% of Americans pay 40% of the income tax.
5% of Americans pay 60% of the income tax.
10% of Americans pay 70% of the income tax.

Charlie Rangel unconsciously reveals the real agenda of the left.  If the volunteer army was a govt program, he would be praising the fact that it benefited the “poor and less fortunate” among us, but since it is our national defense, he regards this giving the poor a leg up as something evil.  The fact that it isn’t what he says it is only adds to his lying hypocrisy.

If govt control of the economy were the way to go, the Soviet Union would be the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world.

Thanks to Obama, America remains the only country where it is illegal to drill our own oil!

If that’s the case, then it would reflect on the poor job the union teachers are doing with education.

No Free Lunch

If anything, the poor are underrepresented.

Not only that, but according to that graph, getting MORE underrepresented as of late…

Military enlistees, by neighborhood income levels?
What about National income levels,or state by state income levels?

What’s the link?

Who are “the poor?”

U.S. Census Bureau:

# The official poverty rate in 2005 was 12.6 percent, not statistically different from 2004.

# In 2005, 37.0 million people were in poverty, not statistically different from 2004.

# Poverty rates remained statistically unchanged for Blacks (24.9 percent) and Hispanics (21.8 percent) between 2004 and 2005.

The poverty rate decreased for non-Hispanic Whites (8.3 percent in 2005, down from 8.7 percent in 2004)

——————————————————————————

From Curt Gilroy, the director of DoD’s accessions policy in the Pentagon.

The U.S. military is not a “poor man’s force.”

That’s the conclusion Defense Department officials reached following examination of enlisted recruiting statistics gathered over the past year.

The office is studying why young black men and women are not signing up.
The office also is studying the Hispanic population in America.

Census records say Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States.

So far, only the Marine Corps has been able to get significant numbers of recruits from that community.
On the socioeconomic side, the military is strongly middle class.
More recruits are drawn from the middle class and fewer are coming from poorer and wealthier families.

Other trends are that the number of recruits from wealthier families is increasing, and the number of recruits from suburban areas has increased.

In fact, urban areas provide far fewer recruits as a percentage of the total population than small towns and rural areas.
The U.S. military is not a “poor man’s force.”

Nowadays falsehood stands erect and truth lies prostrate on the ground.

Dave and Ellinas,

With the addition of data for the 2004 and 2005 recruits, the quintile trends noted in the previous report are even more striking. (See Table 1.)

Heritage Foundation

U.S. Census Bureau

U.S. DOD

From 2003 to 2005, the representation of the highest-income quintile rose 0.68 percentage point, from 22.17 percent to 22.85 percent.

Additionally, over the course of these three recruit years, representation from the poorest quintile has decreased dramatically.

The representation among recruits of the lowest-income quintile fell nearly a full percentage point, from 14.61 percent in 2003 to 13.66 percent in 2005.

According to the 2004 Census ACS, 75.6 percent of the national adult population self-identifies as belonging to the racial category white alone.

In both 2004 and 2005, 73.1 percent of recruits were classified as white alone.

This indicates a recruit-to-population ratio of 0.97, with 1.00 indicating an exact proportional representation.

Whites are the most proportionally represented racial group among recruits.

The 100 three-digit[11] ZCTAs with the highest proportion of blacks (in any combination of other races) according to Census 2000 contained 14.63 percent of the adult population.

The recruits from these areas represent 14.09 percent of the 2003 cohort, 14.14 percent of the 2004 cohort, and 13.37 percent of the 2005 cohort.

Nowadays falsehood stands erect and truth lies prostrate on the ground.

Bezu,

I love facts. Show the left facts and they react much the same way Dracula reacts when you shove a cross in his face. They throw a cloak over their heads so they don’t have to see them and hiss in anger. In their case the cloak is the blind rambling rhetoric and political posturing of the left.

The future ain’t what it used to be…..

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It looks like most recruits come from household incomes in the mid thirties. That is household income? That seems a little low to be considered middle class. You can’t raise a family on that where I live (Fargo ND)

Most people that join the military are like the people that have joined from my family. Not living behind dumpsters poor, but not able to afford college without taking out massive loans.

You can’t raise a family on that where I live (Fargo ND)

Yes, you can.

And when you consider that most recruits come from rural areas as opposed to urban areas you realize that $30,000 - $40,000 is an average wage.

Looking at the graph Bezu posted, approximately 48% of recruits come from households making $45,000+.  Given that the median income for all American households is $43,000 you can see that the balance between rich and poor recruits is pretty even.

There are other factors to consider here as well.  A lot of students who get recruited aren’t living with mom and dad any more.  They’re on their own and probably living in the sort of cheap apartment and working in the sort of low-wage job most of us start with when we move out on our own.  Thus, a recruit could be from a “rich” family but show up as poor in these studies because he/she was living away from home at the time of recruitment.

We should also consider that rich households have fewer kids, thus fewer recruits.

I know the left can’t tolerate the idea of a military made up of people who joined because they believe that this country is good and worth protecting/serving with their lives (because that wold devastate their “IRAQ IS VIETNAM!!!” parallels), but just because the left doesn’t want to believe it doesn’t mean it’s true.

Plus, ask any soldier you want if they were just a poor, penniless dupe who got suckered into joining.  They’ll probably tell you to stick your snotty question where the sun doesn’t shine.

Most soldiers, in fact, will tell you that the joined up to a) serve their country and b) take advantage of the monetary and educational opportunities the military provides.

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

Rob: As I said before, if our military was a govt welfare program, the lefties would be bragging about it.  They fear a competent, professional military.

If govt control of the economy were the way to go, the Soviet Union would be the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world.

Thanks to Obama, America remains the only country where it is illegal to drill our own oil!

Yes, you can.

With a household income of 35,000 dollars, good luck raising any kids in Fargo. Times will be tough. You certainly can’t buy a house making that much. I make about that myself and have been shopping around for a home. No way I could make the payments. It is sad to think that a family with both parents working full time can’t afford a home in a town like Fargo. 

I have never thought the military was full of completely poor people. The military rides on the back of the ailing middle class, like everything else.

With a household income of 35,000 dollars, good luck raising any kids in Fargo. Times will be tough. You certainly can’t buy a house making that much. I make about that myself and have been shopping around for a home. No way I could make the payments. It is sad to think that a family with both parents working full time can’t afford a home in a town like Fargo.

You assume that all households making only $35,000/year are double income households.  That’s not a good assumption, I don’t believe.

Also, I know of three families (two in Grand Forks, one in Fargo) doing fine on $35,000/year.  The one in Fargo just bought a home, in fact.

I think you just make assumptions not backed up by fact which support your pre-conceived socialist notions about class warfare.

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

Military recruitment is largely based
on jobs and education offers.
Get training., get money for college.

All career choices are based, at least in part, on consideration of compensation.

Woof makes this sound like a bad thing, when it really isn’t.

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

Military recruitment is largely based
on jobs and education offers. Get training., get money for college.

Woof: As a leftie, you should support that; real benefits for the “poor and downtrodden” instead of just a handout.  Maybe that’s the part that bothers you; they really get lifted up, and are no longer dependent on Big Govt.

If govt control of the economy were the way to go, the Soviet Union would be the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world.

Thanks to Obama, America remains the only country where it is illegal to drill our own oil!

You assume that all households making only $35,000/year are double income households

Nope. I am single with no kids and that is what I make.

Also, I know of three families (two in Grand Forks, one in Fargo) doing fine on $35,000/year.  The one in Fargo just bought a home, in fact.

I am just going by what I have saw. Maybe I missed out on some good deals

Maybe I missed out on some good deals

Maybe you don’t manage your money well.  Or maybe you’re a socialist who thinks that you’re entitled to everything.

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

I support the GI Bill, and think it is
among the best gov’t programs.

So why then do you portray our troops taking advantage of things like training and college education money from the military as a negative thing?

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

I support the GI Bill, and think it is
among the best gov’t programs.

Interestingly enough, the GI Bill is unique among govt programs, in that it is a reward for service, and not a social engineering program designed to reward dependency.

If govt control of the economy were the way to go, the Soviet Union would be the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world.

Thanks to Obama, America remains the only country where it is illegal to drill our own oil!