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Antiwork

Musings from a class-conscious uniformed service member

I've been serving for about 7 years now, and I've noticed some things about the military as an employer that are quite interesting when viewed with the understanding that the majority of servicemembers are somewhere right of center: Pay is transparent: if you know someone's rank, time in service, and if they have dependents, you can correctly assess their salary to within ~$200 a month. You can't be fired without cause, and that cause has to be clearly represented by a paper trail, and the whole process has to be validated by a legal rep The entire service gets a pay raise every year, and individuals get raises every 1-2 years for seniority, and additional raises with promotion. You get unlimited sick days provided a doctor signs off on it, and you don't have to worry about getting that doctor's note because you have 100% free healthcare. There is a…


I've been serving for about 7 years now, and I've noticed some things about the military as an employer that are quite interesting when viewed with the understanding that the majority of servicemembers are somewhere right of center:

  • Pay is transparent: if you know someone's rank, time in service, and if they have dependents, you can correctly assess their salary to within ~$200 a month.

  • You can't be fired without cause, and that cause has to be clearly represented by a paper trail, and the whole process has to be validated by a legal rep

  • The entire service gets a pay raise every year, and individuals get raises every 1-2 years for seniority, and additional raises with promotion.

  • You get unlimited sick days provided a doctor signs off on it, and you don't have to worry about getting that doctor's note because you have 100% free healthcare.

  • There is a robust and well-enforced system to address abuses of power and reprisals for reporting them.

  • Service members receive an allowance for their housing based on the average cost of rent in that area

  • Programs to pay for college, trade schools, professional certifications, and more are available to everyone as a benefit of employment.

This is just what stood out to me while writing this post, but there's loads more. Basically, military employment is the closest thing the US has to a socialist worker's paradise, and it's full of right-wingers. Go figure.

This isn't to be interpreted as glowing praise for the military writ large. I'm well aware that there are plenty of problems in the service, but right now I'm just talking about worker benefits and quality of life.

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