The Military Recruiting Crisis: Even Veterans Don’t Want Their Families to Join ¦ Pentagon scrambles to retain the main pipeline for new service members as disillusioned families steer young people away

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[–]CaelianPost No Toasties 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

I highly recommend Preston Sturges' WWII satire Hail the Conquering Hero (1944). Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith is a young man who grew up with dreams of being a Marine like his idealized father, who died "heroically" in WWI. Woodrow enlists, but is discharged because of severe hay fever. Unable to tell his mother the disappointing truth, he gets a job in the defense industry and writes her fake letters which a friend in the military forwards from the Far East.

By happenstance, he meets a group of Marines in a bar and treats them to enough beer that they decide they need to take him home to visit his mother. This "harmless fib" explodes when he gets off the train to a hero's welcome.

Terrific film with an excellent cast.

[–]MeganDelacroix🤡🌎 detainee 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

From this perspective, in isolation, it might be best to keep electing Democrats to the presidency.

[–]CrazyjanecreepyjeffReality Monger 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

At the same time, the labor market is the tightest it has been in decades, meaning plenty of other options exist for young people right out of school.

Every anecdote I hear about people looking for jobs does not support this

[–]NetweaselContinuing the struggle 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

...the labor market is the tightest it has been in decades...

Every anecdote I hear about people looking for jobs does not support this

The problem might be in there being more than one definition of "jobs."
Plenty of "jobs (broad definition)." Plenty of "jobs (not worth what you would receive for doing them)."
Number of "jobs (worth the hassle)," not so much.

An extra note: What one receives from a "job" is not just the money. One also receives "being in that specific work environment for at least a third of one's waking hours, for good or ill." That could increase the benefits of the job; that could decrease the benefits.

During the time when I was working in a supervisory capacity, I could not get the people in my department any more money, but what I could do (and did do) was make the work environment as pleasant as possible as long as all of the work got done. IMO, that increased the compensation that the people in my department got from working.

I get the impression that is not done in too many places.

[–]CrazyjanecreepyjeffReality Monger 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

You sound like a good boss

[–]NetweaselContinuing the struggle 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

One particular incident I remember...

Rough day, stress was up, productivity was dropping fast.
I still had, in the car, the Nerf Crossbows I had gotten at a yard sale.

15 minutes in the parking lot later, stress was down, productivity was back up.

[–]InumaGaming Socialist 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'm the boss is Weasel's theme song.

[–]RandomCollection[S] 8 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Apparently dying as cannon fodder for the US empire is not a popular place to be at all.

I think that it would be obvious that more families would wake up.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I heard a military analyst talking about the same phenomenon in the late 2000s because no one wanted to be sent to Iraq. So the military had to offer huge enlistment bounties and lower standards for physical and mental fitness and criminal history. Yeah, that's the way to build a military for US defense!

[–]RandomCollection[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The Death tolls if the US ends up in a 2 front war with Russia and China are going to be a lot more than the numbers from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Even fewer people are going to be willing to fight.