Eturnalshift wrote:
This is one of those instances where you're knowledge on something, based on things that you've read, does you no justice.
"Inconvenient Facts"
Eturnalshift wrote:
It's not my argument, champ. I'm simply providing the facts that you didn't care to look up. You said any drop-out could get paid more than a professional by joining the military... so I proved that it is highly unlikely that would happen.
PS: High School diplomas are easy to get, too... well, for everyone else but you. They're free and all you have to do is show up. Inb4 "I got my GED because I was too smart for HS."
I have both, actually.
The GED exists for the benefit of dropouts and takes three hours to get, so arguing that the job is contingent on that criteria does nothing to debunk the statement that a dropout can pump up the statistics.
Eturnalshift wrote:
In all cases, the candidate joins the military as an E1, making (according to the pay scales) almost 18K/yr. [b][u] That is excluding health benefits and the other allowances.
Interesting you should say that, considering you were trying to eliminate one of the variables from the equation to make the numbers different. Comparing base pay to base pay, you're wrong... again.
Point stands, you're trying to narrow the scope of the argument to exclude inconvenient facts.
Compensation isn't limited to base pay - in terms of cost to taxpayers or benefit to military welfare recipients, although you may want to pretend it is.
Eturnalshift wrote:
Let's not forget that service members pay taxes...
Irrelevant. Everything they have in this world is provided by taxpayers. If you take ten beans out of the pot and throw one bean back in, the net effect is, you're taking beans out of that pot.
Eturnalshift wrote:
Anyways, back to the point. Annual BAH for an O1 will range between 700-1200, depending on where they're stationed. That comes out to 8400-14400, annually, for living expenses. Pensions are paid after retirement, so I can't really include them into the equation... and medical care and insurances, I don't have numbers for. I have a hard time believing there are an extra 45K in benefits paid to an O1. Since you're making the claim, provide the proof.
Well, what are the benefits in question? Food, housing, medical care, pension, and education.
Food, let's conservatively say $10/day x 365 days, that's $3,650.
Housing, conservatively, $400/mo x 12 mo, that's $2,800
Medical care, $200/mo x 12 mo, that's $2,400
Pension...
Quote:
The multiplier is the percentage of your base pay you receive for each year of service. For the Final Pay and High 36 systems you earn 2.5% per year of service. That means you get 50% for 20 years of service up to a maximum of 100% for 40 years.
For want of more facts (which you are free to provide), let's split the difference and presume 20 years of service. Actually nah, let's make it ten, just to be conservative. Pension is based on the last year of service. So, that's 25% of a ten-year salary, which, assuming 2.5% annual raise, which is slightly more than inflation (again feel free to correct me with the actual rate), (40k * 1.25) * .25, or $12.5k.
Assuming the person retires at 65 and drops dead ten years later, of course. In practice, the actual cost is likely to be much more, especially since the site offers the chance to "retire as early as 36", meaning closer to $20k/yr for as long as 30-50 years. But we'll go with the smallest plausible numbers, again, just to favor
your position.
Then there's education.
Quote:
Different factors play into how much each servicemember receives from the Post-9/11 GI Bill. These factors include:
College tuition and fees payment
Housing allowance
Allowance for books and supplies ($1,000 per year)
Quick Google/Wikipedia puts down the average cost of an associates' degree from a community college, the cheapest educational degree subsidized the military (and again, this is the most conservative possible scenario, as opposed to a four-year degree let alone postgrad, which they also subsidize), at $2500/yr, over two years, for $5k total. Again, this is highly conservative since the more popular four-year route is at least twice and long and costly, meaning the total expense is about five times greater. But we'll go with the insanely conservative numbers, just to make
your position as strong as possible.
Plus an extra $1k/yr on top of that for "expenses" (even though books don't cost nearly $1k a year even with jacked-up prices). And housing allowance, I don't know how much that is but let's be ultra-conservative and say $400/mo or $4800/yr. Adds up to very roughly $7,500/yr.
On top of the other benefits named, which don't include family benefits or intangibles such as military discounts and other forms of aid and access, it adds up to roughly $27k/yr. And since it's not income, the cost isn't taxable (as it would be for civvies having to pay for all that out of pocket), so the actual value is about $36k.
Net compensation of roughly $80k a year straight out of college with no skills useful in the civilian world is an enviable scenario and far better than almost anything that anyone in the civilian world offers.
And jacks up the statistics Azelma has linked.
