Who Serves?

The link below will take you to a NY Times article describing a Heritage Foundation study about who actually makes up the ranks of the modern military -- background and overall demographic profile. Unfortunately, not enough Americans realize that the whole idea of the military being made up disproportionately of the under-educated, the poor, and people of color is a complete myth.

This has only become MORE the case in the post-9/11 climate. Anyone in the military is already familiar with most of this, but it's amazing how much this idea persists among America's chattering classes.

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/who-serves-in-the-military-today/

The article doesn't get into this at all, but I think a lot of people would be honestly surprised if they knew more about military pay and overall compensation. For a mid-level O-3 serving in the Northeast (that's Captain in the Army or Lieutenant in the Navy) the adjusted annual salary would work out to somewhere in the neighborhood of $75k.

Obviously, there are civilian professions that pay far in excess of that, but it sure ain't a vow of poverty.