Originally Posted by
JamesNoBrakes
"Military don't get anywhere the kind of pay and benefits that other government employees get"? Seriously?
First of all, in the military you have an awesome opportunity to advance, much more than in many areas of business. Making higher end NCO and mid grade Officer pay isn't bad, a lot further than you'd go than at a regional airline, a "civilian" job.
Second, your housing is taken care of in many if not most cases, you never have to worry about many things related to health care and other stuff.
You get to go to school FOR FREE! 75% tuition when you are in, and many are covering 100% with GI bill and various funds, some people even got in a few years back under a program that paid to go to school ANYWHERE for free (not sustainable and a bad business decision, but if they were guaranteed it, they should get it).
Then you have base services and things like the commisary and PX, ability to get stuff for cheaper. I remember when my car got damaged by hail on base, I got the damage reimbursed by the evil government, due to there not being any garages provided. Not bad.
Then of course there are veterans services and everything associated with that.
And I got to experience these things. It was great. I ended up getting even more money for school than I was originally promised, due to increases along the way. I didn't have to worry about much. Working on the outside was a real eye opener, as I worked my rear end off just as hard, but often wasn't compensated anywhere near what my effort was. At least in the military I was getting paid 24/7 and I had all those wonderful benefits.
Civil servants in general, especially federal types, have a far better deal than almost anyone in the military...if you take into account what they get vs. what they give.
The military has all kinds of extra perks, but that's primarily to offset the extreme demands we make of them, as well as the impact on their families.
And the military will not let you stay forever, unless you get promoted to 4-star rank.
All that said I think most of us agree that congress (with public support) has gotten a little carried away with some of the latest vet benefits, probably due to their own guilt about the wars. The mistake was probably in extending a lot of extra vet benefits to ALL service members because the cost is probably not sustainable. They probably should have focused the extra bennies on those with combat or extreme hardship deployments. But it's not PC to discriminate against the REMFs or shoe clerks or whatever you call them.
I know PLENTY of career AD guys whose DREAM job is something in the GS ranks. That tells me all I need to know
