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I went to highschool and university in the US - I was lucky that I got a scholarship and that covered pretty much all my tuition costs.
But I had a friend, one year older than me, who joined and served in the US army for something like 2 years just so he could get his university costs covered and to save some money for living expenses.
It may not be intentional, but the high cost of higher education is an excellent recruiting tool for the US military.
The poverty draft is very real. Usually it's for enlisted who have no other prospects. But I was in that same boat in college. 2 years in ROTC before something made me realize I was not going to enjoy military life and dropped it.
I went to school in a dirt poor place. Like half of my graduating class joined the military. Recruiters were in the halls like every week. Yeah, it's absolutely intentional.
It may not be intentional
Nothing is unintentional.
Wasn't there some tweet of a US general that said to not get rid of high college costs because they would get less soldiers signing up?
Totally not intentional, I'm sure.
Yes. It was. Now days most jobs offer to cover college. I want to know how they benefit because I don't get it.
They get relatively cheap, more educated workers for at least a short time. And they're often able to keep them at a cheaper salary than hiring someone with the same education. A (proactive) promotion that doubles your salary from $35 to $70k a year generates a lot of goodwill, even if that education and position would usually start at $90k.
Also people who "go to college" that work pays for don't live on campus, so the company is only on the hook for tuition, and not room and board. And it's often not full time. It's worth $10k/year for all that.
It's more than just college that the military offers. Pretty much the most secure paycheck you'll ever hold, potential to live in dozens of countries across the globe, camaraderie with people your own age, free training for jobs that could be very expensive to get into otherwise, shortest path to a permanent pension for the rest of your life at 20 years of service with free health care, plus a ton of others. Whether or not you can deal with the negatives of being in the military is another question.
