"I pay your salary." (What would be your response?)

amen brother cracker.. lol. but you are right.. I remember that well.

1SG Drake, perfect answer!!

Maybe just give them a penny and say "Here's your money back. Keep the change?"

@cdr michael goldschmidt I like it!

Very classy

BAMM!

Lol yup!! This would be a great response!

My pay as an E2 back in March 1992 was $880.00 before taxes. I was just ecstatic someone was paying me shoot guns, camp out, learn a skill.

Gentlemen, you miss the point. You are bound by regulations to not be critical of the government in your military persona. You can say whatever you like as Joe Blow, but SPC Joe Blow swore an oath to follow the orders of the President, and there are regulations against making statements that can be perceived as speaking against the government. Your position in the military always carries the identity of the military, therefore you can always be taken as a representative of that military.

You are also potentially Prejudicial to Good Order and Discipline and Insubordinate. Say what you will when you are NOT acting as the person that took the oath. When you have the uniform on, be the person that the uniform demands.

PO2 Christopher Foss - Another words wait until your in your civi's to bring up how many soldiers are on food stamps and welfare. Not to mention providing / paying for their own food on training missions. My response would be it's time they upped your taxes.

SPC Michelle Nelson - Thompson - Please don't take my statement as any more or any less than it is. I use very precise language specifically to avoid taking a position on the government's behavior, not because I don't have one or because I am afraid to voice my opinion, but, rather because I do not want to see someone get into trouble for doing something that they Should know better than to do. Every person in the military should know that the uniform carries those obligations. Further, we are, or were when I was in, taught that, when the emotions are engaged, the brain tends to disengage. That will not help you to improve the situation.

PO2 Christopher Foss - I'll admit, I was less critical when I was in. Then again they had very few if any soldiers on federal programs and paying for their own food on training missions back then. It was always a crap shoot if you had a good command chain or not. I saw a lot of higher enlisted and officers that never should have made it to NCO much less advanced. If people wonder why soldiers in today's military act so differently from yesteryear they need to take a look at today's world. The younger population is "dumbing down." Not all but a huge portion. Look at how kids treat their parents then ask are they going to treat any other authority figure any better? Granted much of their behavior is learned from their parents. Yes we all took the same oath but everyone is human. Also everyone has a certain dial on the shit-o-meter were they just throw up their hands. Try being a soldier and working for a government that won't pay enough to keep you're family provided for to the point they have to rely on welfare and food stamps. I think that would cause most people to reach that point. I remember once the government threatened to not pay the military while I was in. The general consensus everywhere was "Don't they realize we're the ones with the guns?" and "All threats foreign AND DOMESTIC." Both of which I heard a Two Star and many higher up's say. By and far the people are fed up with the government, soldiers and civilians alike. The government has no one to blame except themselves when soldiers feel they have to answer the "I pay your taxes" the way they do. They have no one to blame but "themselves" for the breakdown in morale. There is no voting for the best candidate anymore. It's become voting for the lesser of the two evils.