Unemployment filling the Military recruiting offices

Reported on the CBS news today,...due to unemployment and a soft economy, the military is not having any difficulty getting recruits for the services.

Young men, laid off, or not wanting to flip burgers, are considering the military as a way of life, and a source of income.

its not sadly that unusual - in the 80s the UK had very high unemployment. When the Falkland war happened a famous phrase emerged "Maggies Army" - refereing to the unemployed who had signed up. If you want to research more try looging at the songs of Elvis Costello, Billy Bragg and Marillion (Forgotten Sons - being the the best example - "From the dole queue to the regiment - a profession in a flash - but remember mondays signing when from door to door you dash" )

Its a trueism that economic decline is ofton used as a way of bolstering a countries military forces - why pay welfare for nothing when a job can be done - for little money.

Interesting, the economy is growing, yet it is the economy that is allegedly swelling the military ranks.

Of course, it couldn't be because the military would be where young, patriotic people would go if they felt their nation needs them. Nah, couldn't be that.

Thomas
I agree with the sentiment - yes that is where young patriot would go - but think for a second you got a first from MIT - Microsoft vs the army ? - i think most people would follow the money. A decline in the economy - and I know its not engineered - makes you think - army = stable job / tech sector = iffy. So i think its understandable that large numbers move to a military career - nothing wrong in that.

The report that made me decide to list this post,..interviewed a young family man and if I quoted properly.."I was working my way to the top, I was going to be president some day,..". Then the company shut down. This was not an IT job at all, it was a plastic pipe manufacturer.

True, Silk, but I can speak for myself. When I joined the Army in 1982, the enemy was the one we'd had for decades - the Soviets. The sense of urgency was not there as it is today, yet I went green instead of dean. Today the kids of friends are going military, not because of the ficticious lack of jobs, but because the feel obligated. From my perspective, it appears to be a recruiter's dream.

apologies - i merely speak from experience
Whatever the job - and having been out of work for the last 12 months - it does lend to a belief that joining the military is a get out of jail card. Its not manufactured - but the unemployed believe this might be a way forward. I doont know about you but with a Navy back ground and a wife and child to support I am interested in the idea that I can get a job with the reconstructin of Iraq - but id much rather have a job in civvy street.

Of course, it couldn't be because the military would be where young, patriotic people would go if they felt their nation needs them. Nah, couldn't be that.

Nope, that wouldnt be it.

The majority of recruits today and in the past 15 years have joined for college money, and the decline in the job market.

There is nothing fictitious about the shortage of jobs and work. I went down to the unemployment office to look for jobs on thier computer database. During normal economic times, a page of jobs in a generalized field would be about 5 or 6 pages, more during an economic boom.

For transportation and material handling jobs, there was a total of 10 listings for the entire metro area. For medical, there was a total of 12. And guess what, amongst those listings, were........

Army recruitment listings for transportation and medical. Out of those ten trans jobs, 3 were army recruiment listings.

So, I dont know hwere youre getting that the economy is growing.......what talking agghead economists say and what I am seeing with my own eyes are two different things.

What Im seeing:

more and more vacancies in offices, shopping plazas, ect. I am seeing more for slae signs on houses, am seeing more people moving back in with thier parents. The lines at the food bank are longer, theres more people than before standing by the freeway with "will work for food" signs.

So, excuse me if I take the fox news economist claims the economy is growing when 93,000 more jobs have been lost. The economy might be growing for people who own stocks, or for the rich who are exporting more production and service overseas. But for the actual American economy, for the people, its not, and poverty is slowly climbing.

So, they are signing up for college money and for a steady job, because none can be found on the economy. Patriotism is pretty much dead except when its in fashion.

When I joined in 91, my junior year, the economy was in recession. That was one factor of my enlistment. The other factors included the desire to make a life calling out of being a soldier, a calling that ultimately ended when I realized I no longer had a country to defend, and the real threats to the shell of America came not from beyond our borders, but from within them.

the Dynamics of a Free Market, Capitalism at work.

following 8 years of decline & down-sizing of the military...and a professed contempt of the military by the commander-in-chief of the 1990s...
The military profession is being re-considered as a career option for many young, educated men & women.

If you want to characterize this dynamic as a response to adverse economic conditions, thats your spin. which can be supported by any number of data presentations..

i still hold to the mass movement phenom, in this case the Lemming Model- orchestrated by orgs. such as Rand TRW and Con Agra (reference a few symbolic/Corps & think-tanks that could be) part of the NWO/Illuminati netwrok....
[[SOON, the rap & hip-hop of today, will become Sousa Marches, as our patriotic youth, join the crusade for democracy- 1 person 1 vote= freedom::CIC Clark or Bush]] micro-managed in USA...


s/riff raff