Are we failing as leaders when our junior folks are forced into having to use food stamps to survive?
Sacrifice
Sir,
Thanks, that link was very interesting. When I had my son in 2000, I was for all intents and purposes a single parent (husband was at a different duty location and we had separate accounts). My base pay was less than $1,300 and I can't imagine my BAH was much more in Texas. I survived just fine after paying my rent, car payment, insurance and daycare bills. In fact, I had a decent savings account too. We never used assistance and I hope I never have too.
For most of our marriage my spouse and I have both worked. We could live off one of either one of our paychecks just fine, it's all about living within our means.
Edited to add: I just looked, my BAH as an E3 in Texas in 2000 was $450 per month. So I made a grand total of $1750.00 ($21,000 per year) BEFORE taxes!
My Point:
I think the focus needs to be more on the Soldier's drive, and his ability to manage his money and time. The Army has some amazing programs and counselors that can help them do this...all it takes is a leader that is willing to show them.
Edit - and that doesn't mean continue to pop out more babies when you're an E-nothing. Wanting and having a family is one thing. Having a sports team is completely another.
Sir,
I feel that in a lot of these cases, the individuals who recieve this additional funding from the government do so because they cannot properly manage their money and instead of addressing the issue they abuse the system. Based on personal experience, I feel that the military pay could be a bit higher considering the things that we are ordered to do within our ranks, but at the same time I feel that the pay is not so low that a person would need government assistance. If we, as leaders, would take a closer look into our soldiers finances, we could identify the problem sooner, preventing them from having to need further assistance.
A lot of opinions on this one, some surprising, some expected...LTC Metz, to directly answer your question, No. We as leaders are not failing when our junior folks are forced into using food stamps. That is because no one is forced into using them. It's a choice people make based on their individual situation. Some are from poor choices, some because of unfortunate circumstance, some from misguided information and others out of pure greed. There is no blanket answer to this discussion, as you peel back the layers it becomes a clouded issue. The closest blanket answer is the Congress is failing to provide adequate pay & allowances so that Soldiers do NOT qualify for these types of programs. I'm not advocating that the gov't go out and tweak the formula for determining what is considered pay, I'm saying increase the actual amount of money in our Soldier's paycheck (base pay) so they no longer qualify for food stamps. Stop looking for reasons to disqualify them (oh they receive BAH, BAS, free medical, etc...) Stop comparing what we earn to our "civilian counterparts" because those counterparts DO NOT EXIST!! No other job in the world has you on call 24/7/365 with the added possibility of DEATH! We can NEVER compensate our Soldiers enough and I'm disgusted by those that believe we are.
I apologize if my rant has offended anyone, but this is and always will be a touchy subject for me (both personally and professionally).
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google