Pause for thought differences in education.

Originally Posted by aaronblood

What would you define as a reasonable household income to not be screwed?

Off the top of my head you would need a combined family income of close to 200,000 a year. This is for only one child. If you want that child to go to the right private school so they can then go to the right college. After all that they then need to go to graduate school. Today a four year degree from even a decent school alone will leave you working as a barista at starbucks. Bear in mind a good college isn't as easy as getting in. You have cars, laptops, books, housing etc. So even if Jr. from Nowhereville gets a perfect SAT, he will most likely have to pass on a good scholarship because he can't afford the basics.

If you can't afford this then your kid ends up in middle management in the south, like Florida. *shudder

[quote=aaronblood]Although, that movie Jarhead, or Blackhawk Down, or any of the WWII or Vietnam movies of the last decade, don't exactly strike me as big recruitment drivers. quote]

The Navy had record recruitment when Top Gun was popular and when the Village People's song "In the Navy" was a chart topper.

hehe

[XLjedi]

Actually my 3 kids all attend private school... and I don't make $200k and my wife stays home, and I happen to like Palm Beach, but that's beside the point.



What do the rest of you all think?

Is $200k per household the minimum threshhold to not be screwed in the US?
I'd put it considerably lower, probably by more than half.

When you said "rich" I thought you were referring to the top 5% of the population. Your $200k mark is more like upper-middle class. Barriers to enter that class are typically tied to the accumulation of credentials and education. Those aren't millionaires.

[XLjedi]

[quote=Flamingboat]

Originally Posted by aaronblood

Although, that movie Jarhead, or Blackhawk Down, or any of the WWII or Vietnam movies of the last decade, don't exactly strike me as big recruitment drivers. quote]

The Navy had record recruitment when Top Gun was popular and when the Village People's song "In the Navy" was a chart topper.

hehe

So Top Gun influenced your decision to join the US Army Infantry?
(incidentally, that's a 20yr old movie)

You were what, in 4th grade when Top Gun came out? I was a sophomore in HS, it was an exciting movie, but it didn't make me run out and enlist in the Navy. Somehow I managed to figure out that flying jets would actually require me to do more than enlist.

Maybe you're parents were influenced by the Village People... you were probably still in diapers.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by aaronblood

What do the rest of you all think?

Is $200k per household the minimum threshhold to not be screwed in the US?
I'd put it considerably lower, probably by more than half.

No. All anybody has to do is strive. Opportunities abound. J.K. Rowling isn't American, she's British, but when she started the first Harry Potter book she was a working welfare mother. Now she's literally "richer than the Queen of England."

The point is that it is possible to make it out of poverty and into practically any level you can imagine, if the desire and the willingness to work are there. On the other hand it's possible to do just the opposite. I was born fairly well off, with a free ride to college. I hated school, so I dropped out and joined the navy. Finished with that, changed states, married, kids, divorced, never managed to find a niche that worked for me, tried this, did that, and now I'm struggling just to not be homeless again; mainly because I could never make myself work at a job I didn't like just for the sake of doing it.

In spite of being about as poor as poor can be, I still see America as the 'land of opportunity'.

[quote=aaronblood]

Originally Posted by Flamingboat

So Top Gun influenced your decision to join the US Army Infantry?
(incidentally, that's a 20yr old movie)

You were what, in 4th grade when Top Gun came out? I was a sophomore in HS, it was an exciting movie, but it didn't make me run out and enlist in the Navy. Somehow I managed to figure out that flying jets would actually require me to do more than enlist.

Maybe you're parents were influenced by the Village People... you were probably still in diapers.

I didn't say I was influenced by either of these. They are factually the times when the Navy set recruitment records. I was responding to your statement about movies not looking like recruitment ads when in fact pop culture heavily influences recruitment.

At any rate you have thoroughly derailed this thread aaronblood and I am going to stop posting here out of respect for the subsim community. You have latched on to one thing I said that has offended your delicate right-wing sensibilities when I pointed out my parents nor myself had many options past the military as early life job choices.

Tell Rush Limbaugh I said hi, but I don't think you can afford his neighborhood. I like that guy, he made millions off angry white males.

[XLjedi]

[quote=Flamingboat]

Originally Posted by aaronblood

I didn't say I was influenced by either of these. They are factually the times when the Navy set recruitment records. I was responding to your statement about movies not looking like recruitment ads when in fact pop culture heavily influences recruitment.

At any rate you have thoroughly derailed this thread aaronblood and I am going to stop posting here out of respect for the subsim community. You have latched on to one thing I said that has offended your delicate right-wing sensibilities when I pointed out my parents nor myself had many options past the military as early life job choices.

Tell Rush Limbaugh I said hi, but I don't think you can afford his neighborhood. I like that guy, he made millions off angry white males.

I specifically said movies of the last decade. Yeah those old movies/songs boosted enlistment... 10 years before you joined.
You and your parents had the same options and opportunities that I've had.

I'm sorry I thought it was you that was quoting the title of the thread as justification to rant on about all Americans making less than $200k a year being screwed.

I was talking about movies in the last decade, those ones that you were eluding to that glorified the US Infantry life presumably around the time you joined up.

A Democrat in the white house isn't gonna boost the salaries of the working class to $200k. So I guess we're all still screwed...

[Steeltrap]

Originally Posted by Flamingboat

It isn't fair to tell me to shut it, when you all bring up these juicy tidbits like the Bush's or how Russia took down Germany

I don't recall telling you to 'shut it'. In fact I don't recall 'telling' you anything. I'm more than happy for people to express their views. I think it's more helpful if those views are expressed in a thread to which the views are relevant. My own view is that these discussions have moved well away from the purpose stated by the instigator of this thread.

I make no criticisms of fellow subsim members in these posts, nor do I try to tell them their views are invalid. I do take note when people start putting words into my mouth, even if that was not what the poster intended.

[Hitman]

Please people stay on track....

this topic was so nice and worthful it would be a shame to hijack it and start a different kind of discussion -which belongs to the general topics forum-

To get back to the theme:

I was born in 1972 and I'm spaniard, so I hardly could have a connection to the WW2 and/or cold war history, as my country didn't participate in neither of them. Yet I followed the long time familiy tradition of receiving a german education and studyied in a german school, where I learned to love the german culture and understood their history. Of course I was -and still am- decidedly "pro-german" and have always admired their culture (Philosophy, Classic Music, Literature).

As a child I used to sail with my grandfather in sailboats in the Mediterranean coast, and I always loved that. Finally, I liked very much to read since I was able to hold a book myself, and 20.000 Lagues under the Sea was the book that most impressed me as a child.

Put that puzzle together, german, sea, submarine.....and add the first watching of Das Boot in 1985 or so, and you get a good picture of how I fell inloved with submarines, specially U-Boots.

Nevertheless, I grew up in the 80s and back then the American culture (Films, pop music, McDonalds, Nike) ruled here, so I got interested for their participation in that "far" war and soon discovered their submarine campaign. Silent Service was also the first submarine simulation I had the chance to play, and as is typichal in me, I combine the gameplay with a huge "real life" research to feel more inmersed.

The rest is history