America's upper classes have gone AWOL

rjrzoom57
Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:57:58 +0000

No, not everyone can be a doctor, lawyer, policemen, firemen, scientist, etc… nor should everyone be in the military.



I think the main distinction to consider is military service does not necessarily mean a career. Most people aren’t going to attend law school or med school, become a lawyer or a doctor for a couple of years and then move on. You can do just that with military service and take that experience with you to the career you may eventually stick with throughout the balance of your life. I really don’t see one precluding the other; in fact you may get your law degree or become an MD through your military service. The main issue limiting significant numbers from military service is the current population of the United States and the decline in the size of our armed forces it’s simply not possible for a large majority of our population to serve. I think that is unfortunate, but even with a substantial increase in our force levels the vast majority of citizens will never see military service. The demographics of those serving is another issue.



Our form of government (Republic) works because while there will always be an upper, middle, and lower class economically,



I don’t see any correlation between the function of our form of government and a class system. How and why would our government stop functioning if most everyone in the country was largely confined to one class? If anything the class system and rate at which the wealthy are getting wealthier and the poor, poorer is as great a threat to our political system as any. When you look at the history of many countries where the ratio of wealth between the “upper class” and the “lower class” reaches a “tipping” point, the political system is eventually threatened or even collapses.

One example; there is great deal of resentment and distrust of public companies where CEOs and upper management have been allowed to pay themselves hundreds of millions of dollars, for in many case, poor performance and a loss in shareholder value while they facilitated massive layoffs of personnel. Are those CEO’s removed? Yes, sometimes shareholders prevail and get to “kick the bums out”. But on what terms? Do those CEO’s leave disgraced and with nothing to show for their miserable efforts? Not likely. They leave with a golden parachute worth 10s or even 100s of millions of dollars. What lesson does this teach those watching this unfold; young and old?

Our system of government works because the vast majority of Americans gets up every morning and goes to work, they pays their taxes and try the make this country a better place than the country they grew up in, each in their own way, despite the fact that it is getting harder and harder to do.

How does all this relate to military service or public service in general? Given all that is going on, I think one of the greatest challenges facing parents raising children to become “good citizens” is helping them to understand the ease in which you can become cynical about our country and use that cynicism as an excuse to shift from “what can I do to help” to “what is in it for me”. At the end of the day, individuals of every “class” must feel they have a vested interest in this country and a notion of what service means. We don’t need a nation of veterans; we do need more people growing up with the understanding we all have some responsibility to serve in whatever capacity we are meant to.