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What explains the disparity of outcome in people who join the military? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 week ago by Subject6051@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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American culture seems to be rife with men who went to the Marines and after being discharged of duty went on to either lead successful lives or who's life took a turn for the worse and ended up on the street.

Of c, the two groups are not equal in numbers and the third much larger group lies in between these two groups. Now, I still am interested in the disparity between the extremes. Why do some people who join the Marines go on to create an over represent the Marines amount the successful, while others end up on the street? They are all given a clean slate somewhat and are exposed to the exact same environment, what do the successful learn which the unsuccessful don't?

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[–] pdxfed@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Sample bias. Any advertising, campaigning, fawning and celebrating are the exceptions. You are exposed to the "success stories" exponentially more through media thanks to government and corporate forces despite the successes being exponentially rarer than the failures: suicides, mental health disorders, divorces, denied medical care by VA, insufficiency of college fund programs, underemployment, etc. The coverage Success Stories get as the 1% or whatever, dwarfs the failures which are the 99%. This reversed representation explains why they may be perceived as equally likely, which is confusing.

The answer is sample bias; deliberately misleading. After all, who is going to sign up if they could see reality represented? Most would just work fast food--same crappy outcomes, fewer bullets.

[–] deranger@sh.itjust.works -2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

This is bullshit because it’s not a 1% / 99% split.

The successes are more common than the failures in my experience. They’re absolutely not “exponentially rarer than the failures.” I work with many successful veterans, all of us are near or above six figure salaries from our civilian jobs, not counting any military benefits. I’m one of those. My wife is an active duty officer. I got out after I did the minimum time to get the benefits I was after, because I like smoking weed and having a beard. I had a plan to pay off my college debt and get experience in the field. I pulled it off, and even got to travel to Japan and live in Italy. I got even more education benefits for reenlisting for a couple years.

Yeah, I know of a few suicides. I know of a few suicides and drug overdoses from civilian life, too. Divorce rates are astronomical on the enlisted side, I’ll give you that.

What fast food job can get you a career and college afterwards? You won’t get decent healthcare, nor room and board, nor an opportunity to travel with a fast food job.

Not every job in the military is infantry. It’s got more risks than a typical civilian job, but it’s absolutely not the 1%/99% split you’re claiming. Most people make it out fine and it sets them up well for life afterwards. That doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed success, though, and some people treat it this way. It is what you make of it.

Here's a source corroborating my experience with veterans:

"New York's 9/11-Era Veterans: A Quantitative Study by Sex, Race, and E" by Lawrence Cappello

9/11 era veterans in the New York metropolitan area performed well above their non-veteran counterparts in most socio-economic categories. The data indicate that between 2007 and 2017 employment, income, and educational attainment rates were consistently higher, and poverty rates consistently lower, than those of the metro area’s general population. These trends held relatively firm during the financial crisis of 2008 and as the veteran population continued to grow into the 2010s. In short, there is considerable evidence within this report to affirm that serving in the armed forces continues to have a direct correlation with greater socio-economic success. This correlation is particularly stark among Latinos and non-Hispanic blacks, where the variances between their non-veteran counterparts are prevalent in income, employment, poverty rates, and educational attainment.

There's a lot of statistics that can be found in this Pew research article too. I believe this sums it up well. Sure doesn't sound like only 1% have a successful experience.

A large majority of veterans endorse the military as a career choice. Roughly eight-in-ten say they would advise a young person close to them to join the military. This includes large majorities of post-9/11 veterans, combat veterans and those who say they had emotionally traumatic experiences in the military.