Doctor? wrote:
Ok, I see yer reasoning now, not sure I totally agree with it but it's sound ecconomics.
Still the question remains if this is wages pushing the cost of living or the cost of living pulling wages, by which I mean, how long is it since the Minimum wage was increased, might it not be that this current increase merely returns it to it's correct "real worth"? Certainly that is the case with the rise in the UK, just nudging wages back in line with the RPI.
I was asking about the military for two main reasons, firstly that I keep hearing what a shitty financial deal it is, and also because, no personal offense whatsoever intended, they DO let some real fuckwitts in.
And the fact remains that we NEED the lowest paid jobs, there's no getting around it, in a world where everyone had a PHD, PHD's would be emptying the bins, and the binmen would therefor command PHD salary.
Of course, scrub 5 billion off the population and let technology take over the crummy gigs and it might all work out.
And while I do appreciate those who work hard and are highly educated commanding high wages, for every person deserving of it, there are 20 (usually with the word "manager" in their job title) who do fuck all, and did fuck all to get to the position of doing fuck all (unlike, say, a medical consultant, who deserves a few rounds of golf by the time they get where they are), other than brown nosing and manipulating.
A scart stat I read once said that in a five year period the number of nursing staff in the UK's NHS had decreased 25%, and that the number of managers had increased 400%, that nurses wages had risen 2%, and managers 20%, and that managers earned 2-10 times as much as nurses.... 
You have a point on the question regarding which is causing the pull. I hope its to stabalize wages with cost of living, but even if so, I imagine there will be a backlash of higher living costs...
On the military, well it depends on the country. I've worked with some other countries that get fuck all for being in the military (Laos comes to mind, $150 USD a month, though their Marines were some of the nicest, bad asses I've ever known).
Military pay is controled by the need of a military. A small military requires that they pay enough to keep enough in, but discourage most from staying in. If they need a large military there are alot of financial benefits thrown their way.
With the US military, it was poorly paid due to Clinton's cutbacks. To keep less people from reenlisting, the Clinton administration stopped giving pay raises, so as inflation happened there was in essence a pay reduction. Our military was very small. With the outbreak of 9/11 and the aftermath, it caused a bulking up of military, come pay raises and incentives have been thrown around quite a bit.
To understand military pay:
Salary - base pay that everyone at one rank with time in grade recieve. This is taxable.
BAH - Housing allowance for those that don't live in free quarters on base, amount depends on area lived and rank. Non-taxable.
Comrats - Food allowance for those not eating for free at the mess hall, fixed price. Non-taxable.
Combat, danger, special, and family seperation pay - Pay incentives for special jobs, areas of deployment, or being away from your family. Taxable.
Reenlistment bonuses - One time pay bonuses for reenlisting where there is a deficency in the MOS, usually thousands of dollars.
Added Benefits - Free medical/dental; no taxes if deployed overseas; base stores have no taxes and have cheaper prices; etc.
Most people talk about the base pay and that doesn't pay much. Since this is mainly the only taxable portion, this is the only amount that is on our W-2 tax forms. These forms are what usually decides peoples eligibility for government programs, like welfare, food stamps, school aide, etc. So there are sometimes military members that are claiming these programs. News articles will write about how many members are on welfare..but this is news not looking at the whole picture.
Right now is a good time to be in the military, pay-wise. Going over to Iraq, someone can come back doubling thier normal annual pay. Not to mention the pay bonuses for reenlisting right now, $10,000 tax-free with possibly more depending on the MOS. Plus right now, with the bulking up of the military, promotions have been ALOT faster....equalling of course more money.
This is, of course, a vague overview, but hopefully it explains a bit....especially that military pay is run by different mechanisms than civilian pay.
On the idea of degrees loosing worth, well that's already happening. At this point, everyone should do thier best to achieve a degree of some sort.
