Comments on: The 2 Financial Benefits that Every Veteran Should Receive http://20somethingfinance.com/the-2-financial-benefits-that-every-veteran-should-receive/ Personal Finance Blog for Young Professionals Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:56:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: agency http://20somethingfinance.com/the-2-financial-benefits-that-every-veteran-should-receive/comment-page-1/#comment-5728 agency Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:25:27 +0000 http://20somethingfinance.com/?p=1534#comment-5728 Lets not forget that while the government is giving them free food, room, and board that they are getting paid a salary for their duty. Its just doesnt seem right to join for no more than 4 years and get free taxes for life. Lets not forget that while the government is giving them free food, room, and board that they are getting paid a salary for their duty. Its just doesnt seem right to join for no more than 4 years and get free taxes for life.

]]> By: Jeff Walden http://20somethingfinance.com/the-2-financial-benefits-that-every-veteran-should-receive/comment-page-1/#comment-5486 Jeff Walden Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:26:09 +0000 http://20somethingfinance.com/?p=1534#comment-5486 I agree soldiers should be well compensated, but I disagree with both suggested benefits. It seems more than reasonable to continue to cover service-related issues; armed service involves voluntary, deliberate exposure to non-incidental dangers of a sort not found in most other professions, with little adjustment in the remainder of compensation. However, to extend this forever, to any injury no matter how unrelated to service or how attenuated the connection might be, seems an over-entitlement. (This is not to say that previously-promised benefits can or should ever be abrogated. Government should be as responsible for the obligation of contracts as private business, even if that is not always the case.) As for freedom from income tax, I simply don't see the clear connection between service and freedom from the income tax. All of that said, soldiers do their work voluntarily (drafts excepted, and on that issue there is agreement among at least a strong minority, if not majority, that they are a bad idea except in extremes; economists are actually relatively united in opposition to the draft). They choose to receive market wages for their service, and if they are unsatisfied there are numerous other jobs available. On a side note, any serious consideration of the questions and arguments raised here simply must consider those raised by Heinlein's Starship Troopers as well. The issues touched upon there are somewhat orthogonal but still quite relevant to the issues in play in this post. I agree soldiers should be well compensated, but I disagree with both suggested benefits. It seems more than reasonable to continue to cover service-related issues; armed service involves voluntary, deliberate exposure to non-incidental dangers of a sort not found in most other professions, with little adjustment in the remainder of compensation. However, to extend this forever, to any injury no matter how unrelated to service or how attenuated the connection might be, seems an over-entitlement. (This is not to say that previously-promised benefits can or should ever be abrogated. Government should be as responsible for the obligation of contracts as private business, even if that is not always the case.) As for freedom from income tax, I simply don’t see the clear connection between service and freedom from the income tax.

All of that said, soldiers do their work voluntarily (drafts excepted, and on that issue there is agreement among at least a strong minority, if not majority, that they are a bad idea except in extremes; economists are actually relatively united in opposition to the draft). They choose to receive market wages for their service, and if they are unsatisfied there are numerous other jobs available.

On a side note, any serious consideration of the questions and arguments raised here simply must consider those raised by Heinlein’s Starship Troopers as well. The issues touched upon there are somewhat orthogonal but still quite relevant to the issues in play in this post.

]]>