It's also rather regional and historical. It's not an outlandish claim in that it used to be true for some people. For example, for a lot of hilbilly Puerto Ricans who were poor as shit, joining the military WAS one of the only ways to lift your family out of poverty. Lots of lower middle class Puerto Rican families have grandparents that were former military, and they only got there because they kind of had no other option at the time.
Nowadays it's mostly kids who grew up with military family who join and not necessarily to escape abject poverty like back in the day.
There are those who join for economic reasons still, but to claim that the majority of people join for economic reasons while all data shows otherwise is a form of very subtle propoganda imo
I can't speak to the economic status of of the military, but I think it would make more sense from a propo standpoint if you say they did not join for economic reasons. Like, saying it was type of calling, or something.
The US definitely does both. The whole joining for patriotic reasons propoganda is aimed at right leaning folks, and the joining for economic reasons is aimed at left leaning people.
Using Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 1997 to 2008, they found that the services have recruited primarily from the middle class, America’s largest socio-economic demographic.
If we're Marxists, which I hope to fuck some of you are, you know that the term "middle class" is arbitrary as fuck. The "middle class" in this country is not the house with white picket fence and two dogs shit, and it hasn't been that since the 1970s. The "middle class" in this country are not bourgeoisie and the vast vast majority of them are not petite bourgeoisie either. They are employees, they are proles; unless you want to make the MTW argument that there are no proles in the US, which is a completely different conversation.
This article also doesn't differentiate between officers and enlisted, which are two different ballgames. Officers are generally scum and come from higher income backgrounds.
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I remember reading a thread on old Chapo that actually debunked the claim that most recruits do it for economic reasons
The claim that most troops join for economic reasons is propaganda to try get citizens to emphasize with the military imo
It's also rather regional and historical. It's not an outlandish claim in that it used to be true for some people. For example, for a lot of hilbilly Puerto Ricans who were poor as shit, joining the military WAS one of the only ways to lift your family out of poverty. Lots of lower middle class Puerto Rican families have grandparents that were former military, and they only got there because they kind of had no other option at the time.
Nowadays it's mostly kids who grew up with military family who join and not necessarily to escape abject poverty like back in the day.
There are those who join for economic reasons still, but to claim that the majority of people join for economic reasons while all data shows otherwise is a form of very subtle propoganda imo
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I can't speak to the economic status of of the military, but I think it would make more sense from a propo standpoint if you say they did not join for economic reasons. Like, saying it was type of calling, or something.
The US definitely does both. The whole joining for patriotic reasons propoganda is aimed at right leaning folks, and the joining for economic reasons is aimed at left leaning people.
If we're Marxists, which I hope to fuck some of you are, you know that the term "middle class" is arbitrary as fuck. The "middle class" in this country is not the house with white picket fence and two dogs shit, and it hasn't been that since the 1970s. The "middle class" in this country are not bourgeoisie and the vast vast majority of them are not petite bourgeoisie either. They are employees, they are proles; unless you want to make the MTW argument that there are no proles in the US, which is a completely different conversation.
This article also doesn't differentiate between officers and enlisted, which are two different ballgames. Officers are generally scum and come from higher income backgrounds.