You clearly have never experienced the dark underbelly of the sign spinning subculture.
You clearly have never experienced the dark underbelly of the sign spinning subculture.
It’s gonna be a Wes Anderson movie and it’s going to be about grapes
Why do you want Trent Reznor to shove film/a book in his urethra?
Don't kink-shame me
In the military you are 4 times more likely to die from suicide than you are from being killed in combat.
The greatest threat to US military personnel is the US military.
The difference is we don’t try to recruit teenagers for murder. Well, the government doesn’t anyways, at least on paper.
35k is also shit pay.
I read it as a 35k signing bonus.
You mean the 25% APR mustang special
Still a shit signing bonus. That must literally be the lowest signing bonus possible today. Pretty sure that my job (Navy Nuke) is still offering a sign up bonus of $200,000+
Lol. Basically the entire air force hasn't offered an enlistment bonus for the past 15 years because they're so overmanned. The army just stopped offering reenlistment bonuses for the first time in god knows how long because even they're so overmanned.
and you aren’t going to get PTSD from spinning a sign.
Unless you get hit by a car.
Still safer than the military though.
You won't get PTSD from spinning a sign, but most of the sign spinners I've known have been homeless, and you will get PTSD from being homeless. The cops alone cause all cities and towns to be hostile to your very existance
Maybe the sign spinner is a veteran too.
My brother joined up and deeply regretted it. I was 8 at the time. When I got to the age where recruiters started sniffing around I told one that I would join if I could only shoot the people Exxon wanted me wanted to shoot, I didn't want to fight for any other oil company. He called me unamerican and they never came back .
Fucking spectacular
Enjoy this Exxon story: https://youtu.be/MondapIjAAM?si=aC97ja1yUEwBTOoG
Shell or bail.
Oo. Time for my "terrible recruiter" story. This was back in the 90s, so the issues then were not the issues now.
My teacher (genuinely cool guy, but a veteran) brought in an army recruiter to talk to us. He ended literally every clause with "'n stuff." Like this:
"If you want to join the army 'n stuff, you gotta get real fit 'n stuff. You gotta get going with a good exercise program 'n stuff. But we'll get your fitness to a new level 'n stuff, plus pay for college 'n stuff."
Basically, it made me decide that I wasn't stupid enough to sign up.
Maybe your teacher brought the recruiter in to make you realize exactly that 'n stuff.
I'm pretty certain that I made an entire recruitment office hate each other for a day. Walked into the Navy office and they had me take a "mini-asvab" Literally 5 minutes later, I called out "I think I'm done!" they replied "no you aren't." One of them came in and looked at my screen and said, "Um... Guys... He's done." They told me to go talk to the other branches first to make sure that I didn't really want to be "Air Force, or something," and finally got my signup bonus, since I knew I wanted to be Navy Nuke. I wanted a good paying rate.
When I got sent to MEPS I was told that I was the highest testing applicant from that particular MEPS station since WWII. I probably should have taken that as a warning sign.
Ha. Same test thing happened to my dad in the UK when he was called up for selective service. Handled the easy test in 5 minutes, but he was told he had to wait until everyone was done. He said the questions were like: Which is the odd one out- square, circle, triangle, elephant. And he said an hour later, there were still people trying to finish in confused frustration.
My dad got out of service entirely. He would never tell me how.
My dad got out by selling weed (allegedly). They couldn't absolutely pin it on him, so he got a general discharge. (Years later he told me that he used to sell acid to a two-star general.)
Dude I must have made way too good of a score on the ASVAB test in high school because the Army recruiters hassled me for years afterwards with calls and letters. I was never tempted to sign up though, and glad I didn't because we started the whole War on Terror a few years later. Several of my friends went to war and came back very different, all of them with PTSD and some with physical problems too.
Given that they have changed testing multiple times since WW2 this is almost certainly false. Additionally a perfect ASVAB score isn't that rare, so your station probably recorded one before you.
Maybe they lied to me, I dunno. Lord knows that recruiters are well known liars. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't have a 99 since WWII, since that testing station is small and surrounded by hicks.
Everybody is a liar. Have a casual conversation with someone, then thoroughly research every claim they make and you're pretty much guaranteed to run into a falsehood.
You should be less gullible.
A: I said "n'stuff" and "n'shit" waaaaaaay too much in the 90s. B: I wasn't a teenager until 2000 so.......
Depends on how much you value your life and independence.
Dealbreaker
Not to shill for the US military, but, uh... source on NJ paying anything comparable?
I don't know if you've looked for a job in the US lately, but the prospects for a 19 year old with just a diploma, and not pursuing a college degree or a skilled trade, are pretty dismal.
You're looking at something ~$30k for a Starbucks barista or a McDonald's burger flipper, or maybe ~$36k if there's an automotive plant nearby. Both are hourly, so gotta hope they actually give you decent hours if you go the fast food route. If you go the autoworker route, hope you enjoy 8+ hours of repetitive, non-stop, physical labor. You're then spending at least a third of your ~$20k - $25k take home on rent and another third on food.
Compare that to $36k, with no significant costs for room and board. You're paying federal taxes but the deductions for active military are huge and most states waive income tax for soldiers. Your take home is better, your expenses are less, your fit, healthy, and your healthcare is covered for life, and if you leave after your contract is up you get to enjoy the government paying for college.
Like 99% percent of military personnel never see combat, and especially now that we're done with Afghanistan and Iraq it's even safer.
The military's problem is that anyone smart enough to do that math and weigh those choices is probably smart enough to do something else, but for millions of people it's a better choice than slaving away at McDick's as cost of living and college tuition continues to rise.
healthcare is covered for life
As a foreigner I wonder why we see so many veterans with untreated psychiatric problems in movies or on the news.
As a vet, believe me you welcome the fucking bullets. I would rather be deployed than be in garrison. You have no idea how insufferable the bureaucratic bullshit in the military is. Im not downplaying the war part, but your mileage will vary with exposure to life threatening situations depending on where you get placed. You may land in an assignment that places you directly in harms way on a constant basis, you might never end up in a combat situation at all, or anything in-between. It's all luck of the draw, you don't pick your duty station. However the one constant thing you will find wherever you go is the most asinine frustrating circuitous bullshit that you have to deal with on a daily basis. The hoops you need to jump through for the most basic shit. The dumb old fucks that outrank you getting anal retentive about regulations that they've clearly never read. The ridiculous amount of busy work. So much bullshit. There were plenty of times when I was in that I WISHED someone would fucking shoot me.
Do you think that all army jobs are bullets and action? It's most likely gonna be administrative stuff. Especially since the Afghan war is over.
The US military has 1.4M active-duty personnel. With a turnover rate around 20% per 36 months, that’s about 2.9M cumulative service members from 2001-2021. During that same time period, US forces suffered about 7000 casualties. That’s a fatality rate of 0.24%, which is not that much higher than that of a civilian living in Detroit in the 90s.
Lol not even close, it's 35k for someone just entering the service. If you get deployed to a conflict zone you're coming back home with 60-80k, but there's no conflicts right now so without hazard pay you'd still come back with over 50k cash for traveling through Okinawa or fucking Germany with your housing and food payed for. So for the right personality a career in the military is extremely lucrative, but it's not for everybody.
Typical deployments are 6-9 months. 50-90k within that time frame is life changing money.
I think that's a signing bonus. As in "we'll give you $35k to take this job that also pays a salary".
I tried to look up equivalent total compensation for a new recruit would be, but it looks like it's nontrivial to figure out. It's something like $25k/year, and full dental, medical, housing, food, and retirement and it's all tax exempt.
Not a bad deal for almost no prerequisites to joining, other than the "selling your freedom" and "directly contributing to violence" parts.
Kinda sounds like a good time ngl
Weird kink but you do you
When I beat my meat I fantasize about being a red coat oppressing colonial Americans in the 1770s
Wow, what's the job?
Shooting poor people to protect oil interests for multi-billion conglomerates.
Does it say anything about the kind of people you feel are up to the job that you're approaching a grown man wearing a chicken suit?
A few of the guys I game with were sign spinners at some point, and they're all extremely anti military for that reason. One of them is technically homeless and has spent a few years without a roof, and wouldn't join the military if his life depended on it.
Wait... Wait, they're anti military because as sign spinners they were regularly approached to join the military?
A ton of Americans would take the job if it only involved shooting. Thing is though, it'll also involve being shot at.
I wish I was so simple I'd think like you.
You wish you were so simple THAT you'd think like me.
Let me tell you something simple: If an opportunity is a good one, for employment in this example, all that has to happen is for it to be known that it exists and people will come knocking, asking to be allowed to avail of that opportunity.
If someone comes to you and tries to sell you about how something is a good deal for you, they are the one who has something to gain, and it is going to be at your expense.
To be fair, for at least the first couple years, your cost-of-living expenses are also essentially zero if you're single, since you'll be staying in the barracks and eating in the mess hall without having to pay anything out of pocket. So that $35k stretches a lot further than it would outside the military.
You also don't have much time to spend it because they keep you pretty busy. In addition there are tons of other perqs. Looking back I'm disappointed I didn't join. You get retirement very early, and you can start other jobs that you wouldn't have the opportunity for otherwise.
I didn't want to get yelled at. That was what kept me out. Now that I get what that was about I think I could have done it for the required six weeks.
The 35k reads to me like an enlistment bonus not a base wage. You can google base wages for the US military if your actually interested. That said if we're talking the US military there isn't a chance in hell that it's a 40 hour work week. He'd be lucky for a 60 hour work week and 80 is pretty standard if your leadership sucks. I had a cot in my office I used multiple nights a week when working for a particularly dickish commander once.
There are plenty of terrible things about the military, stupid long hours, highly toxic work environment, alcohol abuse is encouraged, rape culture is accepted, etc. But the pay isn't all that bad when you add everything up (base pay, tax breaks, housing allowance, on post child care discounts, uniform allowance, free health care, dependants, re-enlistment bonuses, etc). The per hour rate isn't good but I've also never gotten the equivalent time off in PTO that I got in leave either.
There also isn't a wage gap for minorities, there's a ton of other bigotry, but no wage gap.
Yeah, that's an enlistment bonus (up to $50k, they advertise).
Base pay is awful. $23k to $35k p.a.
More after the first three years.
Yeah the entry base pays not great but you do have to keep in mind that there are fewer federal taxes taken for some forms of pay from the military. At lower ranks you also get a barracks room free so you aren't paying rent (or utilities) and you can eat in the mess hall 3 times a day so technically you don't need to buy food. There is also a clothing allowance in addition to your base pay so clothing doesn't come out. You also aren't paying premiums for medical, vision, or dental either.
Once housing, clothing, utilities, insurance, and food are covered that $23k a year isn't as bad as it looks.
What do you do with your 2 minutes?
You get to decide!
That would be the lowest possible bonus these days. My sign on bonus was $72,000 in 2000 and the next year it jumped to $275,000 for my job in the Navy. It's come back down to $75,000 from what I've heard, but I've been out since 2004
I mean, the USN is currently offering enlistment bonuses between $50k and $75k for anyone going down the nuke pipeline. The lie is probably that the $35k is for one specific rate he'll never qualify for.
You can get 200,000 dollar signing bonuses with the military but it usually comes at a cost of how long you have to stay in the forces.
The pay is less than that. Probably $23k base pay.
Enlistment bonus can be up to $50k.
Do we think conscription will be brought back if they continue not being able to find people desperate enough to join? I think it's disgusting recruiters are allowed near and in public schools.
No. We don't want conscripted soldiers. We have proven that a volunteer military will stomp a conscripted military into the dirt. See Wagner VS US in Syria ç 2017-2018
The militaries argument is that a peer-to-peer conflict with say China would result in millions of casualties within months that would have to be replenished. You can't replenish those with volunteers.
Still, it's highly highly unlikely that will ever happen.
Yeah, I'm not saying they absolutely wouldn't ever use the draft again, I'm saying that is the weapon of last resort. Professional soldiers just do the job better than conscripts.
In such a scenario, yeah we may have to institute the draft again, but as you said, I find an all out war unlikely.
The US military has more than enough people signing up willingly. The only way conscription would ever possibly get restarted is if the US was in a conflict where hundreds of thousands of soldiers were being lost. I honestly don’t even think it would be necessary then either, because the US is a giant war cult, so people would be lining up left and right to “serve their country.”
Perception can diverge from reality. Russians were expected line up for conscription. Biggest line I know is accountants' line who want to sell their male workers(and female doctors) for 300 000₽(3k$) in bulk.
And he gets paid more to wear that costume than the military one.
The scars on my mate's back from lugging their frequently hazardous nonsense around would support this.
Duck costumes also don't render you unable to have sons as every kid he and his former unit members have seems to prove.
Base pay for an E1 is $23,011.2 per year. Granted you don't have to pay for food or shelter as an E1. But. Well. Let's not pretend it's actually $35k a year.
Seriously. I joined as a Nuke in 2000. $72,000 enlistment bonus. One year later the bonus shot up to over $200,000 once 9/11 happened.
I imagine the money was the reason most of you were eager to murder as many brown ppl as you possibly could. It also possibly explains why most sane individuals who should have opposed the war supported it, once the dollar is involved common sense is gone.
I joined the SSBN fleet to have my finger on the toggle switch when the order comes to launch thermonuclear missiles. I spend my days when on patrol in a tin can at the bottom of the sea, not shooting anyone. But if we're gonna end human life, I want to be there to watch the world burn and make way for some species less destructive.
An enlistment bonus generally isn't included in your yearly income for the purposes of recruitment until they know for sure what rate/mos you'll be. Until then it's not something a recruiter can offer unless that enlistment bonus is available to all enlistees. And it'd still only be for the single year. They aren't giving you $75K every year of your 4-6 year first enlistment.
Coast Guard is offering $65k for anyone who wants to cook.
It's honestly a pretty miserable job, but you're not getting shot at, sooooo...
If I had to join a service (and I'm just plain too old at this point, anyway), it'd probably be the Coast Guard. Their primary mission is saving lives. One issue is that they're also an arm in the War on Drugs, and that's where shooting might actually come into play. Other issue is how they handle refugees. That said, you can still feel better about their work than the regular military.
Many, if not most "regular military" jobs in Western armed forces don't involve front line combat and getting shot at or shooting at people. Less than 10%.
Now obviously, you look at Ukraine and think "Well that's a lot bigger than 10%," and it probably is. But any country with a large air force, navy, and sizeable ground forces are gonna have thousands of people trained to load weapons onto planes, manage ship engines, cook, drive supply trucks, load cargo planes, cook, manage payroll, manage procurement of equipment, fly drones, cook, run propaganda and recruitment, operate medical facilities... the list goes on.
I had an ex whose brother was going to med school to be a surgeon for the Navy. Her father, who was an Army pilot, thought it was great because he knew his son was just gonna be (relatively) safe on a carrier or hospital ship somewhere, not getting shot at, and just saving lives.
Yeah, I joined for the GI Bill (and steady work, as I was 26 and working at a cable television call center), and ended up staying in because the job I was doing was preferable to what I had wanted to get a degree to do. I went into aviation, though (helicopter flight mechanic and avionics electrical technician). It's been an awesome job and I get to retire in 6 years and get a paycheck for the rest of my life! And my kids get my GI Bill, so between the two of them they have 4 years of college paid (while also getting an allowance for housing).
I've never had to shoot at anybody or get shot at and have been in operational jobs my whole career. I've never been put in a situation where I had to do something morally questionable.
That said, if I went for a non-aviation rate I'd probably have done 4 and out, and get my degree. The other rates seem either boring or miserable (to me). Then again, the vast majority of civilians jobs feel the same way to me, so YMMV.
(and I'm just plain too old at this point, anyway)
Not sure how old you are, but the max age for active duty enlistment was raised to 42. Which, as a person who went through boot camp at 26/27 and just turned 40, is nuts.
I worked for a coast guard contractor many many years ago. It also wasnt a great job but was kinda nice knowing that I might help save lives someday.
How hot is that in the rest of the world?
Here's how you convert between the two:
T[°C] = (T[°F] - 32)* 5/9
32°F is 0°C which is why you need the 32 in there. For the fraction I always just try to think about whether Celsius or Fahrenheit is bigger. Accordingly, I'll need a number smaller or larger than one.
edit:
Aight I got the fraction wrong, which kinda proves that it's useless to remember lmao.
In Fahrenheit, 0 is the temperature of ice in some random brine, just as 0 in Celsius is the temp of ice water.
Fahrenheit and Celsius are defined nearly identically. Fahrenheit just chose some weird values for its basic constants, like using a weird ice brine instead of just ice water.
32 degrees F is freezing, as is 0 C.
Ramen.
Man, come on. The ONLY time imperial makes some decent sense is temperature: for humans, 0 is really cold and 100 is really hot.
Edit: for anyone metric having a cow here, I am pro-metric. All I'm trying to say is that of all the hairbrained measurements in imperial, temperature is the least hairbrained.
At sealevel.
100 is unacceptably hot. Nobody can live in that for long.
86f peak temperature with 35% humidity? Tolerable. Especially when the sun goes down and the temp drops but the humidity stays lower than like 55%.
But the next day of 95f peak temp followed by 76f nadir with 70% humidity overnight? People without A/C die. The homeless die.
What? Tropical regions regularly get that hot, are we supposed to believe that humans die off during the day and get replaced in the night?
I live in Maricopa county, and while yes people do die from the heat, it's not really a substantial amount (about 400 out of over 4 million). It's almost always the elderly or people with severe health problems.
The guy is way off with humidity levels. But look up wet-bulb temperature. Over 35C on the wet bulb scale which you egt with 40C and 70% humidity will kill you.
your right. there is no true 'objective' scale for temperature. freezing/boiling water is arbitrary and not even that consistent. for 99% of use, farenheit is better for people. the biggest advantage that celsius has, is that it is the same scale as kelvin, but thats just because it was more popular in science. the rest of metric is good tho
Man, I'm shocked that most people would rather wear a duck costume in sweltering heat than risk taking a bullet or a grenade!
Am I the only dad (other than OP) traumatized enough to get the "Got any Grapes" reference?
only dad
Broski the song was a popular flash animation on albino-blacksheep like 20+ years ago, so nah.
I blame Roe
So a bird saunters up to a citrus refreshment booth, and he communicates to the booth attendant, saying "hello (bom bom bom) do you happen to possess any grapes?"
The attendant returned "no, we only deal in the business of citrus refreshments, although the drinks are cool and crisp, and they were prepared in my household! Could I interest you in a serving?"
The bird returns, "I've no need."
any money quantity isn't enough when we are talking about the possibility of being killed or maimed somewhere around the globe
you can also get captured and spend several years as a pow
Likely an enlistment bonus, some enlistment bonuses can get fairly large.
The career warfighters I have met seem to think their job is to keep everyone as safe as possible, with the enemy being kept slightly less safe.
There are many in upper levels that see things differently.
It's like you people forget there is a world outside of Iraq.
That’s the correct answer. I was shot at once and the realization in the moment… well it messed me up royally.
Welp, looks like it's back to lying to vulnerable children
AMAB
thanks for using Leebra!
go to feed...
He's already got a job, and you aren't going to get PTSD from spinning a sign. On top of that, you can quit any time you want if you want to do something else.
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