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Bear
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Mostly middle class. I'm a under educated trust fund baby and I still did my service 22+ years |
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JK
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The military isn't a money making business. People who join the military come from all sorts of places and income levels. The one thing they all have in common though, is that they want to serve their country and I thank every single one of them for it. |
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Gaz
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A good part of it does. I come from a middle to upper class family, and I enlisted in the military. |
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Bill R
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no, income has nothing to do with it, however a lot of middle to upper class kids believe they are too good to join the military and think they are entitled to a pampered life style, most middle to upper class kids who think this way usually are raised by liberals and taught by liberals |
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beno_83au
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No. There's a good spread of all levels of society. I had a guy in my section whos father is a very prominent doctor and this guy virtually lives off his parents even though he's in. The army, or at least at battalion level, has a very diverse range of people from all of society. It's like taking the population and condensing it to a few hundred people and leaving out the pacifists and all those do-nothing types. But that's the Australian army. |
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Jared P
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it depends on which level you are talking about and what branch. the enlistment ranks are usually not as rich, but the officer ranks you have to be a college graduate. |
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RKA
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They probably went in as officers.
The military is a good way to start a career. A lot of poor people go in the service because it is a way to get a college education or to simply have a job. Colin Powell for example |
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uscg_recruiter
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NO - It is not true:
October 31, 2006
US Military Recruits From All Classes, Races
Filed under: Science, War — Robert @ 1:54 pm
Some conventional tropes of critics of the American military:
* the military draws mostly or disproportionately from the poorest Americans
* the military draws disproportionately from minority populations
* the military draws disproportionately from the poorly educated
All wrong.
The median household income for recruits is slightly higher than the national median.
The top income quintile provides 22.85% of the recruits; the bottom quintile provides 13.66%. (Suggestion to the critics: switch your argument to an inquiry into why the poorest Americans feel so alienated from their country, they won’t even fight for it.)
Racial statistics are a little harder to pithily summarize, but basically the military is ethnically representative of the country. Blacks, who were over-represented by about 17% a few years ago, are now under-represented by about 4%. Pacific Islanders are the most over-represented group, with a whopping 649% over-representation. Asians are the most under-represented, at 69% of proportionality. Those groups are relatively tiny; the Big Three are all close to 1.0.
Educationally, the military considers a “high quality” recruit to be a high school graduate who scored above the 50% on the Armed Forces standardized test. The proportion of high-quality recruits has gone from 57 percent in 2001 to 64% last year (down slightly from 67% in 2004). Category IV recruits (essentially the “let’s give them a chance but not have high hopes” cohort) are 4.4% of total recruits.
The one piece of conventional wisdom that’s accurate: more recruits come from the South. |
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norskeyenta2
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No it's not true. Many rich kids join the Military after graduating from College and then they can go in as an officer. Don't have to start at the bottom of being a PFC. During war time and there has to be a draft, the American draft board, drafts both the rich and the poor. Many young men/women , want to know what Military is like and make a choice on what branch they want to serve in and then spend a life time of serving , hence retirement. So No it is not only the Poor men/women. |
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One Big Awfull Mistake America
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the majority of people in this nation are classified as poor/ lower mid class. as far as McCain, Palin & Biden they obtained most of their wealth after their time in service. |
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Lu W
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The minor majority comes from the middle and lower-middle class. A small portion come from lower class which you would classify as "poor". Most politicians have children in the military due to tradition and country. |
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SFC M
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Ask a recruiter.
Poor people often don't even qualify.
-higher rates of obesity
-lower graduation rates
-more likely to abuse drugs
-more likely to have criminal history
Middle Class is the target market of most recruiters. People who make enough money to understand the value of job training and a college education, but not enough money to pay for college. |
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Stubs [formerly Lil Ole' Me]
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as enlisted it tends to be more that way, but officers have already gone through college and are a little more established |
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be happy
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yes, and people whose parents emphasize patriotism |
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Black Sabbath
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Officers are the rich class of soldier. |
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Terry
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The majority of recruits for entry level positions - enlisted men - come from lower-income areas.
Middle class people tend to go in through a University or Officer-entry program, not at the lower ranks. |
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Jack McSmack
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certainly the vast majority. |
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George S
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Yes, and other people who have little going for them outside.
That neglects people like the ones you named. Those are just gung-ho. |
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