I think increasing incentives to join the military is where it's at. These guys willingly do a job protecting a ton of people, especially on this board, who would otherwise outright refuse to. That takes a lot of balls to sign up when you know in six months you're going to be put into harms way right out the gate with some of the worst benefits, worst pay, and worst working conditions on the planet even though the job is probably one of the most important on the face of the Earth.
I think instead of making these horrible "benefits" staples of our volunteer military, we should be increasing them dramatically to make serving an option for anyone that is heavily considered by everyone. Increase their pay. There's no reason some pencil pusher should be making five times the amount these guys make by simply crunching numbers. I don't think a high five figure salary should be out of the question -- somewhere between 75 and 90k as a standard GI starting pay with the rates differing in rank in a unit.
Increase health benefits. Extend them for their entire life, even after their tour of duty is completed and add it to their immediate family including their children and their wives or their parents. I don't see why this couldn't be done as it's just probably one of the biggest incentives to join the military in the first place given over %50 of the nation is without any healthcare already.
Extend college benefits to the soldier AND to their children. There's no reason why this shouldn't be done as well as a soldier is essentialy fighting for the futures of so many and what better way to make due on that incentive to join then to offer immediate results to their immediate family.
I have a great deal of respect for our armed forces as they do a job day in and day out that so many of us are unwilling to do and without them, we would face yet another draft in which case we'd do everything that our volunteer force does for FAR LESS then they are already provided. Only instead of throwing experienced soldiers at a problem and solving it, the government would just throw a lot of green soldiers at it and hope the problem worked itself out through sheer numbers of soldiers.
Most of you probably wouldn't even consider joining up here anyways so all of this is probably moot, but I think this would be a great way to bring in new recruits on a daily basis. It's an awfully hard package to pass up though for even some middile class families -- especially today.
