[lbo-talk] poverty draft

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

> Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> >Daniel Davies wrote:
> >
> >>Doug wrote:
> >>
> >>>And he agrees that the notion of a poverty draft is bullshit. The
> >>>military is made up of the "better" echelons of the working
> >>>class.<<
> >>
> >>Not sure that one follows from the other; the reductio ad absurdum
> >>of this would be that the Royal Regiment of Gurkhas is
> >>predominantly made up of the "better" echelons of Nepalese hill
> >>farmers, but I don't think anyone would claim that Gurkha
> >>recruitment doesn't have anything to do with poverty.  Don't have
> >>much of an opinion on the US Army but based on the lads I knew who
> >>joined the Welsh Guards, recruitment is more driven by a lack of
> >>alternative prospects for doing something interesting - it's not so
> >>much that people are forced to join the army because the
> >>alternative is physical starvation, but there is a strong class
> >>element to it.
> >
> >I agree with Daniel.  Poverty is, after all, a relative concept.
> >I'm not starving, but I feel very poor, because my expectations are
> >high.
> >
> >Besides, people who are on the verge of physical starvation are too
> >sick to serve in any army anyway (not even in a guerrilla army of
> >Reds, let alone an army of an empire).
>
> But I'm not talking about on-the-verge-of-starvation poverty. I'm  
> talking about subliteracy, poor health, and the like. Of course not  
> many people with a full scholarship to Yale are going to join the  
> army, but most people who sign up are not "forced" to by their life  
> circs. Most view their decision to join as freely made, and are  
> loyal to the military and their comrades. I don't see the point of  
> denying this unless you need to believe in the innocent virtue of  
> the working class.
>
> Doug

My father "freely" made his "choice" to work for a steel mill (which  
was one of the best blue-collar jobs in his time), and my mother for  
supermarkets, nursing home cafeterias, and the like.  All working- 
class choices are such "free choices," of which the "choice" of  
joining the military is but one.

Yoshie Furuhashi
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