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Comment by babelthuap | Hacker News Reader

The military has a recruiting problem. They also offer free college tuition. That's how I earned my degree. Both parties should be advocating for able bodies to sign up instead of tossing out money. It's not just war either. I responded to many natural disasters when I served. They could join the Guard, Coast Guard and learn some real skills along with helping their community in a crisis but no. Can't do that.

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The military is indeed a great choice for many people: there non-combat roles like medical and IT, and besides college tuition it also guarantees stability, housing, and income.

But it can’t be the only opportunity for young people:

- People with certain disabilities are disqualified, they don’t even have the choice. Not fair to them

- Some people want careers which you don’t get in the military, including “useful” careers like science. Not fair to them, and they probably wouldn’t be good soldiers or Coast Guards anyways

- Some people don’t want to join for ethical or ideological reasons, when you join you technically lose some of your Constitutional rights. This is 100% valid and they shouldn’t be pressured to join; and we probably don’t want non-committed people in the military anyways

- The military has its flaws. There’s a lot of beurocracy and inefficiency, and some people don’t like the culture. A big contributor to the recruiting problem are the horror stories (albeit maybe rare) you’ll see in forums. Many people say that joining the military was the best choice of their lives, but many people deeply regret it.

I don’t mind advocating for the military, but some people are better off going directly to college. And some of those people need scholarships, and college tuition is still unreasonably expensive.

> The military is indeed a great choice for many people: there non-combat roles like medical and IT

Do you even get to select what role you want to get into?

My (conscript) experience is that everyone first goes through Basic Military Training, then you get assigned somewhere randomly and that's basically it. You never get a choice. If you're lucky, you get assigned to an interesting unit, then you enlist and are set for the next 10 years.

edit:

The way the conscript system in Singapore works is

1. if you're 'highly' educated (highschool diploma equiv), you get a chance at becoming an officer. If you enlist, you get put on a career track (ie. set for life).

2. if you're 'technically' educated (tech/vocational diplma), you get a chance to be a technician or unit leader. You automatically become a sergeant after 1.5 years. If you enlist, you get to become a slightly higher ranked sergeant and eventually on course to become an NCO.

3. you're not educated so you're disposable cannon fodder (infantry). You're rejected for enlistment.

Yes. In the US you choose your military occupational specialty(MOS) before enlisting and that is where you will be assigned after you complete your training. Your eligibility for a given MOS is a function of how well you do on the entrance exam.

A college degree is a requirement for becoming an officer.

There are around 18 million college students and 2 million members of the armed forces. Your proposed solution can’t possibly work due to this discrepancy. It is good though that you agree there is a problem and it needs a solution. One proposal is to shrink the military budget. Spending on national defense is more than double the money spent on public schools in higher education.

It can, because 60% of students are women and very few of those are needed in the armed forces, so half are out. Plus service is normally 3 years while uni lasts 5. So around 5M men can be enlisted. And everyone sees the writing on the wall that university education has overshoot it's facility: the marginal student today certainly net loses in life as a result of education, not wins. It needs to shrink. Armed forces on the other hand, will def. need to grow given the insane shit that's going on. 4M enlisted resulting in 6.5M male students and 12M students overall looks about right.

> It can, because 60% of students are women and very few of those are needed in the armed forces, so half are out.

You know that women are people too, right? It's not acceptable to solve a problem by simply ignoring the problem for half your population.

Can't afford tuition? Gamble with your life and see if you beat the odds!

Hunger Games?

Yeah, why should we invest even a single penny in the next generation of Americans unless they're willing to risk their lives first?

This is a great strategy and leaves us more money to spend on giant tax cuts for billionaires.

I sometimes have a hard time wrapping my head around the perspective you're voicing.

No society can survive with that design pattern (encouraging people to take from society, not encouraging people to sacrifice for society).

I responded to natural disaster as well, which is what I had in mind when I signed up. But I was also sent to war. Everybody should be mindful of this potential outcome before they swear the oath.

You can sign up for the Guard and absolutely get sent to an active warzone as that happened to my brother. And they will not advertise that fact a whole lot.

That doesn't really do anything for the millions of people that are paying off past tuition.

They also have a student loan repayment Program.

https://www.nationalguard.com/tools/student-loan-repayment-p...

"If you want a proper education, you should first serve the Empire :)"

Service guarantees Citizenship!

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