> Empirically, "the working-poor draft" describes the economic strata
> from which the largest proportions of recruits are drawn. The number
> of recruits rises sharply at the threshold of $20,000 and declines
> steeply at the peak of $40,000 in absolute numbers (at <http://
Yoshie, you are changing the subject. Income is really irrelevant her, what matters is the central claim of the working poor draft myth that people join the service because they do not have any other opportunities. The income data do not speak to that assertion, because it is possible that low income people may have other opportunities (e.g. community college).
You also ignore my previous posting on the subject in which I refer to my experience working with recruits, suggesting that these people volunteered to join the service for a reason rather because of the lack of other opportunities. In fact, most of these people would find such a proposition insulting - they see themselves as making their own choices rather than someone making them do it. The latter is a myth perpetuated by upper class radicals who see the "powerless masses" rather than human agents making their own choices (despite their low social status) and cast themselves as "saviours" of these masses.
This is one of the things that really pisses me off about certain segments of the US left - because it is so fucking close to the society lady charity model of "helping those less fortunate" and the Catholic concept of "merit making" i.e. helping the poor and less fortunate. Fuck charity and merit making. People are responsible for their own actions and can help themselves if they want to - but if they do not, that is their choice - perhaps their stupidity and loss - but their choice. In the same vein, smoking tobacco or shooting drugs may be detrimental to my health, but it is my choice and fucking moralizer is to save me from my own choice. Therefore, there is nothing "we" or anyone can do to "help the oppressed and less fortunate," such as "organize" "mobilize" "change their false consciousness" or kindred mumbo jumbo from the leftspeak. Trying save the "less fortunate" or "the oppressed" against their will is an example of the annoying upper class superiority, conceit and arrogance.
Wojtek