this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
215 points (98.2% liked)

politics

19097 readers
3491 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] overcast5348@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'll be the first one to criticize militaries and the interests that control them (and I'm not even American)... but I do acknowledge the fact that not having a good army can fuck your life up big time. Well, just look at the three conflicts around us and how each one of those countries is surviving.

Yes, most soldiers might never see a war, but is it possible to measure how many countries would've tried to invade your country, or your allies, if you didn't have that large army to act as a deterrent? That's why this one shitty employer gets special treatment.

Rules that make joining the army attractive/mandatory to people who have other options is obviously good for the nation at large. This is just a move in that direction, and I totally get it.

[–] hibsen@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As you’re not American, I’ll assume you’re unaware of all the attractive benefits this employer already gets. Here’s a few:

  • its employees gain access to massive subsidies for higher education that most Americans have to pay for, since we are a shithole country
  • those education benefits are already extended to their spouses and children in instances of total disability*
  • any veteran has access to a welfare stipend if they have low income
  • any injury they have on duty that results in any chronic symptom means they get tax free money every month and free healthcare for life — this isn’t just while working on base either, if you’re on leave and you twist your knee skiing and it hurts to bend it sometimes, the government will pay you for life for that, and pay you more if you’re married or have kids. Depending on how many “disabilities” you rack up, this can be upwards of $4k, tax free, every month, for life.

*if you rack up 100% of disability, this does not necessarily mean you can’t do anything, it just means you’ve hit a combination of government disability math that thinks you can’t

And those benefits? I’m all for them. I wish everyone got them, since there are far more useful things a person can do instead of joining the military-industrial complex, but whatever, at least someone gets them.

What bothers me about this one is that it’s at the expense of the competitive service, and thus at the expense of the public — Americans will get poorer service from their public servants because they didn’t have to compete against the best-qualified to get their jobs. They just got plonked in there because of who they decided to shack up with.

[–] overcast5348@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fair enough, and I do agree that everyone should have free (or reasonably cheap) access to healthcare, education and shelter. (I'm "commie" as fuck, depending on whom you ask)

That said, if all the existing benefits aren't enough to attract good people into the army, I see why the government would want to keep increasing benefits till they get their fill of soldiers -- all in the name of national security.

Also, these things tend to have knock on effects, no? If private sector starts losing out on his employees because they'd rather work for the government as long as it's a remote job, then the private sector is welcome to change rules to attract employees too! It's a "free market" of labour after all.

[–] hibsen@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I really like your last point, and I hope that’s the effect of this. I just also hope that it’s not to the detriment of the competitive service.

We’re already seeing a decrease in quality hires due to direct-hire authority — without checks on the hiring authority, they have a tendency to just hire fast without actually determining if someone is qualified for a role.