Our Lefty Military

Gerald · 06-16-11, 04:23 PM

As we search for paths out of America’s economic crisis, many suggest business as a paradigm for cutting costs. According to my back-of-the-envelope math, top C.E.O.’s earn as much as $1 a second around the clock, partly by cutting medical benefits for employees. So they must be paragons of efficiency, right?

Actually, I’m not so sure. The business sector is dazzlingly productive, but it also periodically blows up our financial system. Yet if we seek another model, one that emphasizes universal health care and educational opportunity, one that seeks to curb income inequality, we don’t have to turn to Sweden. Rather, look to the United States military.

You see, when our armed forces are not firing missiles, they live by an astonishingly liberal ethos — and it works. The military helped lead the way in racial desegregation, and even today it does more to provide equal opportunity to working-class families — especially to blacks — than just about any social program. It has been an escalator of social mobility in American society because it invests in soldiers and gives them skills and opportunities.

The United States armed forces knit together whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics from diverse backgrounds, invests in their education and training, provides them with excellent health care and child care. And it does all this with minimal income gaps: A senior general earns about 10 times what a private makes, while, by my calculation, C.E.O.’s at major companies earn about 300 times as much as those cleaning their offices. That’s right: the military ethos can sound pretty lefty.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/op...me&ref=general

Note: Published: June 15, 2011

August · 06-16-11, 07:18 PM

The military is also the most wasteful organization known to man. A three hundred-times-a-janitors salary pales in comparison to the huge amounts of money wasted on weapons procurement boondoggles alone.

Another area in which the comparison fails is because while the civilian CEO makes more than his military counterparts there aren't too many ex-CEO's still drawing a salary from their old companies, but there are a lot of retired General Officers, as well as still more numerous retired Field Grade officers (who make almost as much) on down to senior Enlisted retirees, all of them getting free medical and other benefits.

300 x 1 versus 10 x 100 + 8 x 500 + 5 x 5000. Oh yeah we should follow the NYT's recommendations...

gimpy117 · 06-16-11, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by August

The military is also the most wasteful organization known to man. A three hundred-times-a-janitors salary pales in comparison to the huge amounts of money wasted on weapons procurement boondoggles alone.

aren't a lot of those funded by congress?

Quote:

Originally Posted by August

there aren't too many ex-CEO's still drawing a salary from their old companies:

what about the "golden Parachute", benefits packages, and stock options??

August · 06-16-11, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gimpy117

aren't a lot of those funded by congress?

Everything is funded by congress as I have told you on numerous occasions.

Quote:

what about the "golden Parachute", benefits packages, and stock options??

Again you're talking about a single person. Whereas the US has on active duty 230 Generals in the Army, 208 in the Air Force and another 60 in the Marine Corps (and i'm sure an equivalent number of Navy and Coasty Admirals) and perhaps 3 times as many as those collecting retirement pay, and that still not including the thousands more lower ranks.

Also may I remind you that CEO's are paid by a companies shareholders and by choice. The military is paid by the taxpayers who have no choice.

06-16-11, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by August

The military is also the most wasteful organization known to man. A three hundred-times-a-janitors salary pales in comparison to the huge amounts of money wasted on weapons procurement boondoggles alone.

Seeing as the Weapons Industry is the driveing force and there is a known insider drive behind it all?
To the common person it's pretty clear there is something not right.
But Voters seem to ignore the simple facts.

Quote:

Another area in which the comparison fails is because while the civilian CEO makes more than his military counterparts there aren't too many ex-CEO's still drawing a salary from their old companies, but there are a lot of retired General Officers, as well as still more numerous retired Field Grade officers (who make almost as much) on down to senior Enlisted retirees, all of them getting free medical and other benefits.

Not to mention many Ex-Military while grabbing benefits, go to work at high pay for 'Concerns' that use them to dig deeper into our pockets.
I kind of see it as Treason myself.

06-16-11, 04:23 PM	#1
Gerald SUBSIM Newsman Join Date: May 2008 Location: Close to sea Posts: 24,254 Downloads: 553 Uploads: 0	Our Lefty Military As we search for paths out of America’s economic crisis, many suggest business as a paradigm for cutting costs. According to my back-of-the-envelope math, top C.E.O.’s earn as much as $1 a second around the clock, partly by cutting medical benefits for employees. So they must be paragons of efficiency, right? Actually, I’m not so sure. The business sector is dazzlingly productive, but it also periodically blows up our financial system. Yet if we seek another model, one that emphasizes universal health care and educational opportunity, one that seeks to curb income inequality, we don’t have to turn to Sweden. Rather, look to the United States military. You see, when our armed forces are not firing missiles, they live by an astonishingly liberal ethos — and it works. The military helped lead the way in racial desegregation, and even today it does more to provide equal opportunity to working-class families — especially to blacks — than just about any social program. It has been an escalator of social mobility in American society because it invests in soldiers and gives them skills and opportunities. The United States armed forces knit together whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics from diverse backgrounds, invests in their education and training, provides them with excellent health care and child care. And it does all this with minimal income gaps: A senior general earns about 10 times what a private makes, while, by my calculation, C.E.O.’s at major companies earn about 300 times as much as those cleaning their offices. That’s right: the military ethos can sound pretty lefty. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/op...me&ref=general Note: Published: June 15, 2011 __________________ Nothing in life is to be feard,it is only to be understood. Marie Curie

06-16-11, 07:18 PM	#2
August Wayfaring Stranger Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 23,197 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	The military is also the most wasteful organization known to man. A three hundred-times-a-janitors salary pales in comparison to the huge amounts of money wasted on weapons procurement boondoggles alone. Another area in which the comparison fails is because while the civilian CEO makes more than his military counterparts there aren't too many ex-CEO's still drawing a salary from their old companies, but there are a lot of retired General Officers, as well as still more numerous retired Field Grade officers (who make almost as much) on down to senior Enlisted retirees, all of them getting free medical and other benefits. 300 x 1 versus 10 x 100 + 8 x 500 + 5 x 5000. Oh yeah we should follow the NYT's recommendations... __________________ Flanked by life and the funeral pyre. Putting on a show for you to see.