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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Commissary, anyone?[/quote]

I’m convinced that so many Service Members struggle when they leave because the cradle-to-grave socialism of the military takes away a lot of day-to-day anxieties. Of course, those anxieties are replaced by other ones - seeing active combat, year-long deployments, etc.

But when socialism works well (see: U.S. military life), people often flounder when they are removed from that structure and tossed into the cold reality of the U.S. civilian economy and society.[/quote]

People flounder when trapped in a capitalist economy, you say? [/quote]

No, people flounder when they have been infantilized and dependent on others and now have to grow up and live independently.

Even our national parks know this; don’t feed the wildlife, they stop learning to forage for their own food [/quote]

That belief only works if capitalist society provides people the means to live independently.  Ever tried supporting a family of four on Walmart wages?  They deliberately underpay their workers, knowing that SNAP benefits will make up the difference.  The government is subsidizing these large corporations.

Seems like the corporations should learn how to forage for themselves.[/quote]

If you are a Walmart shelf stocker trying to feed a family of four, it isn’t capitalism that put you in this situation, but a series of poor choices.

And for the record, Walmart pays very well for people who move up the ladder, like $75k - 130k for middle managers. Upwards of $300,000 for super store managers.

Trying to live of minimum wage with a family is hard, because it isn’t meant to be a career but an entrance into employment. [/quote]

Not everyone can be a super store manager. For every manager, there are dozens of employees.  They aren’t all going to get promoted, not because they’re incompetent but because there aren’t enough job openings.

So it isn’t “poor choices”, it’s simple mathematics, although the just world fallacy is comforting to people who are born on third base and think they hit a triple.[/quote]

After 5 years of service a person at Walmart can make roughly $50,000/year as your basic run of the employee. Team leads make even more. That’s starting salary for most teachers. Not bad for someone with zero skills other than unboxing and working a register.

And again if you are doing this without a partner/spouse and three kids, that isn’t capitalism’s problem, but poor life choices. [/quote]

Again, it’s math.  Even if every minimum wage worker managed to defy the headwinds and acquire the skills to level up, there still wouldn’t be enough spots to promote them into.  Entry level jobs that people used to slot into right after college are now being held onto longer, with cascading effects.  And where does the “poor life choices” argument stop? If that $50,000 a year manager wasn’t such a lazy loser, they’d be a regional manager. And if that regional manager had made better choices about which family they were born into and which college they attended, they’d be a VP.  And on and on up the ladder, until you get to the CEO, who is apparently the only individual capable of making perfect life choices, as evidenced by the fact that they are a CEO. That’s a circular argument.

Faulting individuals for not being in full control of their destiny is like believing in “The Secret”.  It’s sleight of hand designed to dismiss larger systemic issues so we don’t ever have to consider or discuss them.[/quote]

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