Today I Learned

Because benefits people at the cost of corporations.

At least with DeCA there is a stone wall of needing to not die during service to access it. So it doesn't threaten corporations as much.

Cuz he's a Commie. /S

My husband and I, who are both Enlisted, have been saying for years that the military is proof that a form of socialism CAN work in the US. It's not "true" socialism because we still have an owning class, but ffs, it's a goddamned start. And its not just Active Duty who gets taken care of. Its also dependents, veterans (to an extent), and retirees. So there is the proof that the model is scalable.

At this point, I honestly believe that the biggest reason reason the government won't let the US have free or even affordable Healthcare isn't solely because of profits. It's because they won't be able to dangle free healthcare over the heads of poor teens to get them to Enlist. Same thing with the pension for re-enlistments.

I feel like those two items are purposefully withheld from the public to keep the military stacked.

Indeed, the military tells you which uniform to wear on a daily basis. I do not understand the soldiers who say they despise socialism, when they're in the middle of it.

And all you have to do is kill whoever they tell you to.

To add to this, something I like to point out to people, but (for the US) only ~60% of military personnel are ever deployed. Of those 60% only 10-20% will ever see combat. To top that off ~25% of the military are actually civilian service members, people who work for the military but are not soldiers.

So in summary, for each soldier that sees combat there are:

• ~6 deployed soldiers who will never see combat.
• ~11 non-deployed soldiers who never will be.
• ~6 civilian military staff who will probably never need to move for work.

Of these 24 people, all have access to the commissary, retirement and pension, top tier insurance, paid child care, up to 26 days of paid time off with 13 sick days and 11 fed holidays. The only things the military civilians don't get are the VA, loan programs, and special protections.

So unless you're a complete block head with no skills or talent your odds of joining the military and basically getting socialism with no risks is pretty high. Remember this the next time someone gets mouthy about respecting "the troops" or "serving their country," odds are they didn't do shit.

I used to work with a whole group of guys who their whole military career (20 years) was running a wastewater treatment plant on an Air Force base in the US, that's it.

especially if you have 800bn funding it every year. half goes to contracters(which includes the stuff you mention) plus giving welfare to other countries instead of citizens.

I just had a MRI on the VA's dime and if I would have gotten it with my insurance it would have cost me 2400 bucks. The VA paid a civilian hospital 98 dollars for the procedure. I paid nothing.

Housing is assigned by rank

Pay is rated by rank

Is there really a rank in communism? Who decides the details of a rank?

The largest social program in human history is the US military.

That would be the Base Exchange/Post Exchange, but it, the Commissary, Shoppettes (convenience stores), and Class Six (liquor stores) all fall under the Army Air Force Exchange Service. The Navy has their own service.

Funny enough there is still rationing. If you are in an overseas base, alcohol and cigarettes are rationed to cut down on black market sales to host nation citizens. We still bought stuff for our friends, though. Bourbon and cigarettes were super cheap compared to what they could buy on the economy. Coffee was also on my ration card, but I don’t think it was actually rationed. No one ever signed it off.