Who Will Carry The Load?
We have had an all volunteer military since 1973 and during that time we have sent it to war on several occasions. For the past decade, our military has been fighting enemies and suffered many casualties. Many troops have deployed several times into a combat zone. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are both winding down, but deployments will continue since we have bases all over the world. When one looks at who is serving, it adds up to less than one percent of the population. As a result, fewer and fewer Americans fully understand what it is like to serve, deploy, and fight. That load is not being shared as it had been in the past.
During World War II, nearly every family was touched in one way or another and as a result came to understand the sacrifices. In addition, most items were rationed so sacrifice was met even on the home front. We talk about it today, but it does not touch the population as it did in the past. We read that the country is war weary. Why? Far too many people do not have a relative in the military and many do not even know of a neighbor who is in the service. There have been no shortages of anything because of the war.
According to polls, the military has the highest reputation of all organizations throughout the country. That’s great and it should be so, but not many people encourage their sons and daughters to go into the service. The opportunity to grow and be exposed to leadership development early is more available in the military than in any other organization. The opportunity to meet with individuals from all types of backgrounds also adds to the growth potential as one moves around.
On the civilian side, who is carrying the load? We now have nearly half our people paying no federal income taxes, and an ever growing number signing up for food stamps. Last month, we had more people sign up for disability than those who got jobs. Where is all these disability claims coming from when we have improved our safety environment dramatically? It seems that far too many people are content to have the government provide for them.
The economy is truly in the doldrums, but there is no significant cry from the population. No one is going hungry. It seems that many are content to live a simple life and let others bear the burden of the country. Many politicians desire to raise the taxes on the rich because according to them, the rich do not pay their fair share. When the top 50% pay 97% of the federal income taxes, How much more should they pay?
It does not take much to survive. I recall being in the jungle of Vietnam and two meals a day along with some drinking water met all the needs. One slept on the ground and covered himself with a poncho when it rained. We went like that at times for months. That is not an ideal way to live, but we survived. We carried the load as did many others like us.
Today, far too many are not carrying the load and many of them are content to have others do the work. It is time to demand that those who are capable get out of the cart and start assisting in pulling the cart. John Stossel had his staff look at the area around a “Job Center” near the “Fox” studio in New York and found many entry level jobs in the area. One restaurant said that he would hire 12-14 people and train them. It seems that as long as unemployment paymentscontinue there is no rush and little incentive to find a job.
Colonel Don Myers
USMC (ret.)
It is interesting that the fact is not often noted that LBJ opened the door for use funds collected for social security to support government operations (supposedly loans) instead of being credit to the social security trust fund. Hence a source of the shortfall in social security funding. As a further slap in the face to people receiving social security is the fact that Bill Clinton authorized taxing of social security payments (presumably between bouts with Monica L)
I certainly agree..I also saw the Interview with John Stossel. I see and read and daily hear..COLLEGE, COLLEGE, COLLEGE—-BUT, ,I THINK..’Trade Schools. We will always need..Carpenters, Plumbers, Electriicians, Painters, Brick Layers, Tile Setters,. Glazers, Cement Workers, Carpet Layers. And I am sure there are many more .
IN PLAIN SIMPLE LANGUAGE BRING BACK THE DRAFT. THE FIRST REASON IS IT WOULD SUPPLY JOBS TO THE UNEMPLOYED, TRAINING ECT AND SOME WOULD RECEIVE AN ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT. IF THE DRAFT WAS TO COME BACK INTO EXISTANCE IT WOULD BUILD CHARACTER TO OUR YOUNGER GENERATION AND MAYBE THEY WOULD LEARN WHAT AMERICAN FREEDOM IS ALL ABOUT, AND WHAT THEY WOULD BE FIGHTING FOR, OUR WAY OF LIFE. GOD HELP OUR MILITARY MEN AND WOMEN.
To use a well worn set of prose:
War is an ugly thing,…… but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
–John Stewart Mill—
Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference in the world, but the Marines don’t have that problem.
–Ronald Reagan—
Semper FI
If there is anyone that is concerned with the plight of our soldiers, I respectfully request that you read my letter to President Obama regarding the alarming rate of suicides in the military. If you agree with my sentiments, please copy and paste my letter or compose a message of your own to president at whitehouse.gov.
You will find my letter on my blog page: ReclaimingOurBirthright on blogspot.com. Our soldiers need us to fight for them now and I hope that every citizen will pitch in to repay the debt we owe!
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS MESS ? THE DISHONEST SELF SERVING PEOPLE WE PUT IN TO SERVE US. THEY MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE, IT CAN BE DONE ! SO MANY PEOPLE JUST SEEM TO LOVE BEING MUSHROOMS. WANT TO FIGHT? NO MORE TAXATION WITHOUT HONEST OPEN SHORTER TERM REPRESENTATION. I BELEIVE ALL SHOULD SERVE IN OUR NATIONS MILITARY THAT ARE ABLE. THEY SHOULD SERVE IN PEACE OR WAR. IT IS THEN THEY MAY BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND RESPECT FOR OUR FLAG.OUR COUNTRY AND THEMSELVES AS AMERICANS.
Colonel Meyers,
You seem like a very intelligent person and I’m sure that you mean well but I believe that your analysis of the situation is off. I’m actually very impressed with most of the comments left so far. It seems that many people understand that you can’t get blood from a stone or tax dollars from the elderly, young students, the handy-capped and schizophrenics. If you’re suggesting that these people need to sell their dentures, drop out of school or stop buying their meds so that they can contribute more to a tax system that–in some ways–is inherently unfair to them, I think you are going to find few people to go along with that idea.
I feel that I have made a solid case for why the wealthy need to pay more taxes (more than the non-wealthy and more than they are paying now). You can read it on my blog: ReclaimingOurBirthright on blogspot.com.
It is true that many of us enjoy more comfort and convenience than people have ever had in the past and we all need to keep that in perspective. But if you are suggesting that people should just rough it and camp out on the streets, I would remind you that people tried that already. It was called the Occupy Movement, and I’m relatively certain that you were opposed to it at the time. The police were bringing the homeless to the Occupy camps and the Occupy protesters took them in, shared their food, space and resources. But alas they were told that they couldn’t rough it. They were told that they need to get a job. I guess that means that they need to move to China?
Temptest in a tea pot, in that NO ONE WILL DO ANYTHING. I always hear a LOT of Talk talk talk talk. And yet no one will DO anything. If vets voted together, as a group a UNIT if you will, we could pretty much determine the outcome of most elections….assuming we’d vote together and influence 1-2 family and friends each. Vet parties end up being tea parties and thus marginalized. 21.8 million vets.137 million voters. There is NO vet vote “There’s this idea that veterans have a shared outlook and interests, but voting behavior is usually explained by other factors, like party affiliation, ideology and religion,’’ said Benjamin Bishin, an associate professor at the University of California-Riverside, who studied exit poll results from more than 20 elections between 1992 and 2002.”
WHY is there NOT a) a cohesive vet party b) a slate of vet party candidates and c) a coordinated effort to elect those vets? Frankly I believe that R A Heinlein hit on the answer as to how to fix things in the political structure put forth in Starship Troopers. What we have now IS NOT WORKING. IT CANNOT BE FIXED. The system will and does prevent the needed fixes. Until we get POLITICIANS OUT OF POLITICS, our system WILL continue to downward spiral. Shipmates, Troopers, Guardsmen (Of all three stripes), Jarheads and Zoomies WE ARE the Last Centurions standing watch on the frontiers keeping the barbarians at bay, while the senate, house et al piss away EVERY thing we have stood forth to protect and all we have sacrificed.
Sometimes I think everybody is right. Sometimes I think everybody is wrong. There seems to be places in this country where employers can’t find enough people willing to work. In other places, like where I live, there are dozens of people competing for one menial job. Any job. People who say there’s always a job if you just want to work must be somewhere that has plenty of jobs. Maybe those jobs don’t pay a living wage? Sometimes any job is better than nothing. Seems that when times get hard the rural areas might suffer the most. I always hope that every part of the nation prospers enough to be working. If you have work in your area, eventually that will help my local economy. People in this country have always migrated to follow work. Not just seasonal workers. It’s no light endeavor to pull up stakes and move. Living in southern Oregon I know what it’s like to have environmentalists war against the economy. They have basically ended the timber industry here. So many of them are not even from here. The Congress used to supplement the counties with cash. A bailout, if you will, but now they are dialing those down. We would rather work. They have given the money because they won’t allow us to selectively harvest the forest, just as they won’t allow other industries to thrive in other parts of the country. Seems that southern Oregon has been in a recession, for the most part, since the early 80′s. Even most of Congress have never been in our forests, they just think they know what’s best for them. And now there seems to be some back-room maneurvering in the United Nations having to do with the environment of the entire country. Good husbandry does not chain off the national forrests. The biggest enemy of our country, from where I sit, is the liberal mindset.
One idea to save tax money and a lot of it.
Myself, as a tax payer, am drug tested in order to earn the money that helps pay for such things as welfar, foodstamps and unemployment.
Should not the receipients of these programs be required to pass a drug test also?
It seems only fair. The government would even pay for the test and still end up saving a ton of money.
There are many people who are looking for jobs who are not supported by the government, yet unable to find one. The reason I believe is age discrimination or lack of knowledge of another language. Also there are many veterans who are looking for a job also, yours truly included.
The top 50% pay 97% of the taxes because the other 50% are getting government hand outs, whether it be welfare, food stamps, disability, social security, etc. Plus when jobs are outsourced to other countries, what do you expect the bottom 50% to pay? Maybe if we had smaller government, this wouldn’t be an issue. If our politicians actually cared about us, maybe outsourcing would be illegal.
Also, as far as unemployment, I have friends in the telecommunications industry that can’t find work for over a year. So many are unemployed, they are competing against hundreds of people at a time. I have a friend who works in HR for another company who gets about 200+ resumes a day on each job posting it has. It’s not that we’re lazy, it’s that the jobs are elsewhere (like India, China, etc). Free Trade Agreements are decimating our country. How about instead of stating how lazy we are, look to the source to see what is causing the lazyness. In this case, it’s our government. Find ways to beat that and people will follow. Until then, you are just complaining without resolution.
I take issue with you sir, including social security as an entitlement. I realize that is the nomenclature our idiot government uses; however, I was forced into the ponzi scheme put together by the socialist Roosevelt. I participated in this flawed plan until I retired, and I will never get out of it what I and my employer put into it. The other programs you mentioned are entitlements, as the recipents never contributed to the programs they are drawing from.
Rustie, I agree with you. I paid into the SS ‘system’ all my working career spanning over 40 years. All I want is MY money back as promised. THAT is not an entitlement.
Rustie, You paid into Social Security? Me too. But NEITHER of us paid in near enough: The GAO says Social Security is TODAY 28 years of its revenue short for commitments to the baby boomers.
So you can claim you paid in yours, just as soon as you write a check to the government for 4.2 years of your GROSS salary, TODAY!
(4.2 years of your GROSS salary = 15% annual SS payroll tax times 28 years of revenue the program is short)
P.S. You should also know that Medicare is WAY worse off. In fact:
ObamaCare is a $1.2T solution to Medicare’s $89T underfunding.
75 more ObamaCares and Medicare is fixed!
And, to fund $89T would require we collect 37 years of ALL Income AND Social Security taxes, TODAY!
P.S.S. And when you add in our Federal Debt, well. Take a look see:
- our unfunded liabilities are > $120T,
- and ALL federal revenue from income AND Social Security taxes is less than $2.4T/yr!!!
please realize $120T / $2.4T = 50x,
so every taxpayer owes 50 years of taxes TODAY just to get us back to even!!!
- We have a 100% debt to GDP ratio,
going up ~10%/yr with >$1.2T deficits, so it’s a right now problem,
- 60% of public debt matures in less than 3yrs,
- astronomical money supply growth
- and the Fed bought >60% of the Treasury’s debt issuance in 2011,
with money created out of thin air
- the coming loss of the US Dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency
Gregg are you a liberal or an idiot? perhaps both…you have a very perverse ideal of math and reality..
I agree with what adam v said except on one point that I think he just doesn’t understand. He refers to Social Security as a government hand out. NO IT’S NOT!! It is money that the government has TAKEN out of our wages over the years, in my case 50+ years, has not paid us any interest and is now giving it back to us.
It is our money, earned by our hard work, from whatever work we engaged in.
Well said Casey, Social Security is our money that we’ve had deducted from our paychecks for years. Now here is my question, since there always seems to come up for debate at one point or another, about getting rid of Social Security, what will happen to OUR money that we’ve place there for our retirement years. Will we ever see it back, plus interest as you state….easy answer, NO. Yet, there are way too many people who have never contributed to Social Security that receive it, how is that even happening? Okay, some people have health issues that need to receive it, but than there are parents who have had children late in life and now we are supporting, the parents and their children on our Social Security. Social Security is and has been way over abused.
Social Security and Medicare are not “government handsouts!” We retired persons and our employers paid into the Social Security System for many years to be able to retire with a “guaranteed” income. Presidents and Congress have stolen, not borrowed, enormous sums of money from the Social Security System and are not even paying interest on the stolen money. The Social Security System has provided the lion’s share of the Government debt. There has been no interest in paying back the money stolen from the Social Security System. Why? The money that the Presidents and members of Congress would receive from Social Security is a paltry amount compared to the VERY GENEROUS benefits they have arranged for themselves. Where is the first place Obama looked to make budget cuts? Social Security and Medicare! Why? Because he and Congress don’t have to give a damn!
Well Colonel Don, maybe no one wants to die for banker’s greed. If the Chimese were landing on the Gulf coast, there would be no shortage of patriots. War for empire is not a valid reason to “liberate” other countries from their natural resources.
You’re wrong, robertsgt40. The entitlement attitude fostered by liberal government has created a class of people who will always expect somebody else to do their dirty work for them. If the Chinese, or any enemy, were landing on our coasts, these “give me some free shit” people would cower behind the few brave folks who would fight or go over to the other side and become lackeys of the enemy. This attitude has been growing for years, I know families who have never had a member in military service, including WWII. There’s always some excuse, like your “… bankers’ greed”, or “I need to stay home and support the effort by working my farm”. The real reasons are cowardice, laziness and “you owe me because I’m disadvantaged”.
You hit the nail right on the head. The only thing you missed is the continued loss of honor. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find honorable people in our country, especially on the east and west coasts. Califorinicatia is an outdoor insane asylum. Yes, there are a few decent people there but they are vastly outnumbered.
The federal income tax is unconstitutional.
Find a job? What planet are you on? You, sir, need to find out the REAL facts about how this corporation is run and just how badly we’ve been massively lied to and stolen from. Our military is not supposed to be participating in undeclared wars, wars of conquest, wars that punish sovereign nations for not participating in the global banks (utter control and eventual bankruptcy). The terrorists are our own government and their paid assassins, the C I A. Our troops are sent overseas to protect the opium crops which are then brought to this country where we have a phony “war on drugs”. Please, sir, truly educate yourself and be part of the truth, not the corporate government lies.
Ellen,
You are incorrect regarding your statement that the federal income tas is unconstitutional.
Amendment XVI of the Constitution, approved in 1913, states: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states and without regard to any census of enumeration.”
Obama, our Dear Leader has taught that the fruits of our efforts are not our own. So why should I volunteer? As long as there are brave, capable men and women who sacrifice their bodies and lives for me and everyone else, we all now know they did not do it because special people along their path contributed in some way. So that means I can participate in their accomplishments, bravery and valor because none of those belong to them. How fortunate we are that President Obama can teach us these things. Let the volunteers volunteer. I’ll just sit on my duff and enjoy their distinguished accomplishments.
Oh not to worry. Just tell everyone that you won the Congressinal Medal of Honor. The Supremes said that it is OK. By the way, you can burn an American flag at the same time, they said that is OK also.
You seem perfectly propagandized to me. Not completely wrong but completely propagandized. How are you going to ask people who have no money (the elderly, young students, the handy-capped, etc.) to pay more taxes than they already do. Those too poor to pay federal income tax, pay a large share of their income in state and local taxes, sales taxes, other taxes and government fees. What happens when those millions of people end up homeless, hungry and destitute? Modern day Darwinism: a slow, agonizing death?
@ NotPropagandized: You seem perfectly propagandized to me. Not completely wrong but completely propagandized. How are you going to ask people who have no money (the elderly, young students, the handy-capped, etc.) to pay more taxes than they already do. Those too poor to pay federal income tax, pay a large share of their income in state and local taxes, sales taxes, other taxes and government fees. What happens when those millions of people end up homeless, hungry and destitute? Modern day Darwinism: a slow, agonizing death? In the past, the wealthy were willing to pay a great deal of their income in taxes because they realized that they became wealthy due to the assistance of the government. Whether it was their public school education, their government-backed student loans or they myriad government resources available to everyone. You can’t use these resources to get wealthy and then say that you don’t want to pay for others to benefit from those same services.