If we do the math using the figures in the email from a US Marines recruiter, $3500 for 6 weeks of training equates to $14.58 per hour and $5500 for 10 weeks of training equates to $13.75 per hour.
How is it that the Department of the Navy can receive $212 billion in the 2022 US Budget and then proceed to pay less than $15 per hour? The US Marine Corps requested almost $50 billion for its operations alone. Military contracts to private military contractors is how they’re able to pay personnel so little.
National Defense magazine outlined that: “Some $700 million has been reallocated toward “investment priorities,” [which includes] long-range precision fires, networks and sensors as well as $20 million for updating manpower systems, and $150 million for training and education programs”
Each of these line items has a slew of private contractors who profit off of the idea that America’s naval might is flailing in comparison to China’s specifically. Very few dollars is allocated to in-house development of these line items.
The military industrial complex remains alive and well yet simultaneously somehow, Americas military might is somehow losing its power.
Maybe the idea of privatizing and outsourcing military should never have been a thing at all. Maybe it’s time to reconsider allocating so many dollars to war mongering across the world.
Or at least pay those who want to serve in the Military better
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