Military members have always been paid. No one would enlist if you didn't pay them Mike. Point is, there is a law of diminishing return at work here, pay shouldn't be the only factor in deciding whether to enlist, but it shouldn't be dismissed out of hand either.
I've written before of this law of diminishing return, because it relates to allot of situation we look at in life. If you work-out an hour or two a day, it's good for your body, but if you work out 12 hours a day your body will begin to break down. Natural as well as man made systems follow this same law. Too much sun or too little will kill your plants, too much or two little water will destroy your lawn. How much training is enough? How much pay is enough? How much welfare is enough? How large of a military presence do we need in Iraq, in Afghanistan, or patrolling the rest of the world to keep the peace?
At some point too much begins to reverse the good you're doing. At some point the law of diminishing returns kicks in and begins to destroy that which you have nurtured and created. Leaders in tune with the system in which they are operating, need to listen to the signals very closely in order to be able to tell where the law of diminishing return begins reversing itself. Typically, there is no way of knowing where the point is qualitatively or quantitatively speaking.
We give people who play a musical instrument, throw a football, shoot a basketball, kick a soccer ball, and pitch a baseball a free pass to attend college they are qualified to attend. Why can't we do the same for young people who are willing to give up three or four years and serve their country in the military? And what makes the issue even more difficult for me to understand is "paying" to motivate young people to attend college is a win-win situation for our country. It was a win-win situation after WW2 when the GI's returned and were offered the GI Bill. It's been a win-win situation for the state of Illinois, currently, the only state to offer such a program in America.
Let me tell you a little story about a young kid who joined the service from Illinois and worked for me. He joined "specifically" because of the free college program. He was also a very patriotic young kid. But he desperately wanted to earn his own way into the University of Illinois and not burden his parents with tuition. So, he joined up, he was seventeen when I met him, joined the service under the 3X3 program. Three years in active, three years reserves.
To make a long story short, this Illinois resident returned to the state after his three years, and he, along with Marc Adreeson and a few others worked in the supercomputer lab at the University on something called the "Mosaic Project". Those "kids" created the first web browser. All of them went on to start companies big and small and usher in the age of the internet. Many of their names are now legendary. The companies they spawned grew and grew or morphed into the fold of other companies.
That one kid, who came in the service in order to go to college, has probably directly created 3000 high paying jobs in Chicago. And there is no way of knowing how many he's created indirectly, or in other places around the country.
I think Illinois got their monies worth out of his degree. I think America got its monies worth too. It's a win-win.
And that's just one story. I could tell you more. |
