Rajiv Chandrasekaran doesn’t like you
This won’t surprise anyone, but in an article, in the Washington Post that is supposed to be about shutting the commissary system down, it turns into a thing about how well the troops live and, of course, it’s a class warfare thing.
In an era when private employers are reducing health care and pensions, the military continues to offer generous retirement benefits, including to service members who have never spent a day in combat. For troops who remain in uniform for 20 years or more, the military provides an annual pension immediately upon retirement — even if the retiree is 38 years old — equivalent to at least half of their final-years salary. Enrollment for an entire family in a military health-care plan that operates much like a private health maintenance organization will cost a retiree just $539 this year, about one-ninth of what the average non-military family will pay out of pocket in HMO premiums.
Those on active-duty also have bucked national trends. Over the past decade, military salaries have grown at a faster rate than those of civilian workers. The average enlisted soldier now earns more than 90 percent of Americans who have less than two years of college. Most Army captains — the third-most-junior rank of officer — will take home more than $90,000 this year.
That compensation does not take into account a raft of other services subsidized by taxpayers: commissaries, child care, schools on domestic bases, and morale and recreation programs. The tab for those will reach about $5 billion this year.
Surprise! Civilians think that we have it too good. The thing is, if it’s such a great deal, where aren’t these f**knuts lined up to join the military to take part in those rich benefits we’re being given. What’s that “service members who have never spent a day in combat” bullshit? How many days has the author, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, spent in combat in the military so that he can be so judgmental? According to his Wiki, he covered the war in Iraq, but not in the military, obviously.
See when I joined the Army in the paleolithic era, I didn’t have to shove someone out of the way to get through the door first. I also don’t remember the Washington Post publishing any articles about how I was only making $258/month and how the commissary and PX were the only places I could afford to shop. I never took Food Stamps, but that was a pride thing – I certainly qualified. Our abject poverty wasn’t an issue then, I guess because they figured we deserved it, but now that pay is good, suddenly we’re a drain on government spending.
I abso-f**king-lutely dare Chandrasekara to do a piece in the Post about welfare recipients living too well with their cable TV, their 50 inch screens, $2600/month apartments (that’s the maximum housing allowance they were getting in DC last I checked about 5 years ago), their new cars, etc…. No, it’s much easier to take shots at the military who will just sit and take it, rather than piss off half the population of the District.
And, oh, the reason I shop at the Commissary when I get a chance is because of the selection of foods that I’ve become accustomed to – like my Tschibo German coffee that I can’t find in civilian supermarkets. There’s no real savings attached to it, anymore except that we can buy brand names at the same price as the generic store brands. And it makes me happy to screw the state governments – even though the prices are the same as they are outside the gate, the part that would normally go to state taxes, goes to the morale and welfare activity in the particular community. It made me happy to screw O’Malley out of a couple of bucks when I lived in Maryland.
So, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, instead of complaining about how well we have have it, go sign your name on the dotted line, if we have it so damn good, you should willing to join in the whole package that comes with the military lifestyle, you jealous, crybaby.
Category: Media, Military issues
He used to play one *hell* of a sitar.
i’ll just hate the asshole back!
I’m currently deployed, have been for six months now. I talk to my wife over Skype (thank God for that creation.) I make good money, but after being in the single digit countdown and “getting extended,” I’d trade a $1000 to be able to spend an hour with my wife.
Yeah, we make good money, we get some benefits; but what other job has the demands.
Spend a couple days walking in our combat boots, Chandrasekara, or shut up.
Wow, that is really horribly written and researched. “The average enlisted soldier now earns more than 90 percent of Americans who have less than two years of college.” What is average? What is the “average” education level of the “average soldier”? A captain makes about $70K before taxes at the over 10 mark. In DC or Hawaii he might make up the other $20K in BAH, but I’m not sure if he would anywhere else.
There are plenty of other examples of drivel, and I’d love to see the context in which Punaro made his comments. it wasn’t to the reporter, and, from what I know of Punaro, it seems uncharacteristic in the reporter’s framework.
What an uninformed, dumbass, assclown this guy is. Let him take a spin outside the wire on patrol. Let him live like I did, no food stamps, though we qualified. Living hand to mouth a lot of months. Wife worked to help out. Why doesn’t he turn and take cheap shots at welfare recipients who live like working people. I take that back, better than a lot of working people with the self respect to work. But I can tell from his writing he is a give it away liberal to everyone except those who give their life’s career serving this nation in the military. Some deployed, some served in necessary jobs stateside. The point is they served and gave up a hell of a lot to do so. F@ck this turd!
Lets compair apples to apples here for a min.
What other job/profession can a person be called away from their family at a moments notice to go risk life and limb? And unlike other dangerous jobs some may argue that answer the above questions(first responders, police/fire crew etc) we don’t get ANY OT pay.
Also lets take a minute and look at the average enlisted member for a minute. While I don’t have the stats for the otehr services most if not all E-6s and above have at least an Associates degree. In fact many are earning it at the E-4 lvl and going on to ear a 4 year degree by the time they reach E-6. (or at least most of the ones I know are/do). So, compairing the “average enlisted” person to someone with less than 2 years of school is long since out dated.
-Ish
@6: With all the deployments and extensions, it’s not easy for most soldiers to earn much college credit these days. As for the other services, I’m not sure. My knowledge may be a bit outdated but in the mid-90’s as an E-6 with just under a year of college I was about average. Because of the difficulty of acquiring college credit, for the most part people had whatever level of education they attained before they signed up.
One of the biggest differences between active and reserve components (in the Army at least) is the education level of the enlisted personnel. On active duty an E-4 with a bachelor’s degree was somewhat rare. Not unheard of, particularly in my specialty (intelligence) but by no means common.
By contrast, in the Reserves and National Guard the E-4 with an advanced degree is almost a cliche. I graduated from law school as an E-7 approaching retirement, but during the course of my 11+ years in the RC I met at least 4 other enlisted lawyers. And lower enlisted with 4 year degrees were as common as weeds (it’s kind of odd to see a 2nd LT straight out of college commanding a PFC or SPC who graduated the same year and who may have been a college buddy of his.)
Some whiny guy in DC name Chandrasekaran doesn’t like me because I worked in an environment that dictated what I wore every day, that required time from me to stand watch every six days, regardless of what plans I had, and that gave me a food allowance that barely covered the cost of day-to-day expenses, that wanted to know where I was going and how I would get there if I requested leave, AND required that I stay within XX miles of my duty station?
Oh, yeah, and when I was REQUIRED to live off base in Philadelphia because there was no room at the inn, I was not reimbursed for commuter expenses like gas and wear and tear on my car, right in the middle of the Arab oil embargo. Yeah, that was fun.
So do I care that some spoiled brat reporter doesn’t like me because I put my time in and he didn’t? Not so much.
This 🙂 is my GAS/GAF face.
@6: Your first sentence reminds me of having to deal with one boss who went on about how good we had it. I finally stopped him by saying “Do you know what the difference is? The Corps can say ‘I want you to go over there to die.’ You can’t do that.”
And let’s see… An E-1 with less than 2 years makes under $18K. And said E-1 has Boot Camp, MOS school and work experience. Pretty bad deal when a plumber’s apprentice makes more than that in two years.
This guy again????
Rajiv’s world is different than ours, apparently. He certainly isn’t writing about any reality in THIS solar system!
Wonder what Rajiv’s salary and benefits are for writing half truths and lies? Seems like a rather cushy gig. It’s is nice to see liberal print media struggle financially.
I tried to argue with the WaPo FB trolls about how in A number of places in CONUS the commissary is the only option beyond one civilian grocery store, if the home front doesn’t want to travel 45 mins one way to a bigger city. At which all of them claimed BS because they all know of the big bases like Norfolk, San Dog, Jax, Polk, Hood, Lewis/McChord,etc. I then mentioned places like Whidbey, Minot, Adak, Eileson, Guam, etc where there is the commissary was cheaper than out in town. I also brought up that DeCA money goes right back to the base via MWR and Relief funds. If we did go to a Wally World or Piggly Wiggly providing services would they sign a deal that 80% of profits go to MWR a base? The truth is nope that contract wouldn’t be filled. The reality of this story and its “free” military bennies are sinking the overall government budget bloat are all about stirring up hate for the military with the leftists and make the “low-inform” voters forget about things like some SES or some state governments unrealistic pension bennies or that the FDA food programs are getting well needed cuts.
Unless things have changed since I retired, the commissary prices are cost plus 5%. The 5% being for overhead. The exchange however, is a for profit entity and the profits are what goes into MWR activities. You’re correct though in that many things can be bought cheaper in the local supermarket now although, at least here in S.E. Michigan, the meat prices and quality is better on base. There are some commissaries that lose money but I would suspect that most are self-sufficient. Some at the small, overseas bases perhaps but those are the very ones actually needed.
@13: There are none so blind as those that will not see.
Bill R. is correct. Commissaries are not-for-profit government entities. The exchanges (AAFES/NEX/MCEX) are for-profit with profits returned to support MWR programs (exchange profits might also fund building/remodeling exchange facilities, but I’m not positive about that – that could be funded by MILCON funds).
Maybe Rajiv is upset that Mommy and Daddy overpaid for his education and he’s got some lame ass job with the post. Like others have said, the pay is decent, but doesn’t make up for the BS our servicemembers have to put up with. So very glad that I retired when I did. I would redifine “going postal”, freakin Liberal twits
Lessee, Jonn…I’m bettin’ I can pull out an LES (Leave and Earnings Statements for SFB Chandy dude) and show exactly what I made as an E1-E4…6000/Year….so let’s mete it out…That amounts to 500/month or 250 bi-weekly…I didn’t own a car, I had a 150/month phone bill and I sent money home to my mother. Take out the taxes and some drinkin’ money…whoo! Livin’ the high life…yeah. Funny, I seem to recall also giving money to my married friends so they didn’t have to go without. We tested the DEPMEDS at Ft. Hood and some people were really suffering pay wise because they couldn’t work two jobs needed to make ends meet. And that was before Copperas Cove became citified.
WHO.IS.THIS.DICKWEASEL?
The cost of ordering the goods, filling the shelves and checking out customers is all borne by the American taxpayer.
As the cost of the freedom to produce those goods and enjoy the associated lifestyle those goods provide is borne by the troops (who sacrifice their freedom to enjoy their lives with their families, or who sacrifice their very lives) through their service in the military it seems a trade heavily tilted in favor of the tax payer.
Perhaps Mr. Rajiv Chandrasekaran should explore the cost/benefit ratio of in state tuition and health care for illegal aliens, along with the large number of able bodied turds living off the American tax payer. Or perhaps he could explore the vast amounts of corporate welfare given to companies that are already making huge profits.
This is typical of the kind of pukes who inhabit the media these days, as well as the nation. They talk a lot of sh1t about supporting the troops, but when it comes time to open your wallet and put your money where your mouth is folks like Rajiv Chandrasekaran want you to know they’d rather f#ck you and take your sh1t than actually honor their words….
No surprise to me to find another reporter has no integrity and zero honor when it comes to fulfilling a promise made to the troops.
I fuggin’ hate that Pakistani fucktard, too!
Fuck em in the ear with a frozen trout..
Easy to complain when the only danger you have to worry about is some guy cutting you off in traffic or maybe getting mugged.
They are subsidized, but the return on investment is $2:1.
Commissaries sell groceries and household products at cost plus five percent. The surcharge goes toward store maintenance and new construction. But to operate its 248 stores worldwide, DeCA needs an annual appropriation, which is taxpayer support.
In return for that $1.4 billion subsidy, military shoppers save an average of 32 percent on brand name products and local staples like milk, bread and fresh produce. DeCA estimates the typical military family-of-four saves $4400 a year using commissaries. The total value of those savings is more than $2.8 billion for a two-for-one return on the subsidy.
Robot Wrangler: as National Editor for the WaPo, I rather doubt that Rajiv has to worry much about getting mugged. He probably does have to worry about someone parking to close to his reserved parking space at the WaPo at 1150 15th Street NW in DC from time to time, though. Or maybe about the Starbucks in his building being out of his preferred Jasmine Oolong Green Tea (or whatever kind of foo-foo-water drink he enjoys in the morning).
Hondo:Probably drinks his Chai latte with his pinkie sticking out.
Once again refer to the first sentence of my previous post, as it sums up exactly what I think of the assgoblin.
Pretend concern about government largesse like their pretend concern about the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. If they are so worried about government spending then why are they borrowing money at almost double the rate that the Republicans did? Why has the debt to GDP ratio increased 17% during four years of Democratic rule while only increasing 14% during eight years of Republican rule?
Rajiv Chandrasekaran … sounds like an exotic and or tropical disease that inflicts the nether regions.
Note: Insult me and I will insult you right back!
Hey now… let’s not bring tea into this.
Rajiv–quick, pull out your calculator and figure out this problem, you fuckin Einstein:
Let’s assume for the sake of argument your $90K for a O-3 is in fact correct. Let’s also assume that same Captain spends 6-7 months each year overseas/deployed (not uncommon.)
What’s that translate to in hourly salary, numbnuts?
@28 Rajiv’s idea of a long day is maybe 10 hours…..you can bet for him it’s not 72 hours no sleep in a dirt hole and smelling like 4 week old 4ss…
90k for 16 hour days over the course of the year is less than $23/hr….not terrible wages but hardly lap of luxury wages…
$90k for a 40 work week is sweet, but I don’t see that pay scale in the manufacturing world without extra hours. working as a GM in my last employment gig it was more like 55-60 hours a week for 80k….
Over the past decade, military salaries have grown at a faster rate than those of civilian workers.
For at least 1/3 of that decade, military salary increases haven’t even kept up with inflation. It sounds to me less like military pay is increasing too dramatically and more like civilian wages have stagnated. Who did Chandrasekaran’s employer endorse to try to fix the country’s economic woes during the worst of that stagnation? Is there perhaps a correlation there?
Ravi, Reykjevik–whatever–Chandralevishitcan’s–whatever–scrawl was accompanied by a photo, the caption of which reads, “Shoppers forage for bargains at the commissary at Ft. Belvoir.” Forage? Heh now, that’s very classy stuff there. Excuse me, ladies, but do you mind if the Washington Post refers to you as it would a bunch of scavenging feral hogs?
How about our tax dollars being handed out to his kinfolk to buy corner stores and gas station/head shops?
A quick way to save a few DoD dollars would be to hurry up those trials of Hasan and Manning, forfeit their pay and benefits, then do a two-fer execution, but we all know that ain’t gonna happen.
OFF TOPIC BUT ON TARGET
Hey. I have a question. When exactly did we initiate the Chinese version of re-education camps? The West Point rugby team was folded after it was learned that members of the team sent emails to one another that were termed “raunchy” and were what we used to call locker-room humor. Here’s the thing, though. “The cadets were required to complete a supervised rehabilitation program.”
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/03/west-point-rugby-team-benched-over-emails-deemed-derogatory-to-women/?test=latestnews#ixzz2VCBsiX4d
Okay all now that we have blown our spleens. Let’s examine the article logically (and its twin about retirement bennies). These are written so that the fans of WaPo and MSNBC (who have admitted to being nothing more than a 24hr pundit station now), can feel good about finding fraud waste and abuse to the taxpayer in conservative favorite programs while distracting the low informed voters from the fraud, waste and abuse in other programs that the WaPo favors like welfare, government pensions plans for civilian workers, golden toilet seats for civilian buildings.
The WaPo and most liberals can not admit that most of the social programs have failed. Also, they believe (and honestly IMHO) that most of us in the military aren’t human and they despise what we do or stand for because some form of utopia can not be achieved as long as there is warmongers. Even when faced with facts from official government sources they chose to ignore it and they keep on with the internet memes or cute sound bites they heard. So the best we can do is try and show where they are wrong and be very nice (Jesus level of turning the other cheek) as they spit the hate.
>>>even if the retiree is 38 years old — equivalent to at least half of their final-years salary
Not even close sweetpea. Obviously the idiot doesn’t understand that retirement is taken out of only part of your salary.. The extras like housing all go away, and even then I think my husband’s retirement is only 45% of his base pay. This is such misleading crap.
The person who REALLY doesn’t like us and is behind much of the article is Richard Spencer. He also wants to do away with the 20 year retirement, switch to a TSP, and move the retirement age to 60. Class act.
http://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20110725/NEWS/107250313/DoD-panel-calls-radical-retirement-overhaul
I’ve seen liberal reporters do this before. There was some idiot on Slate who quoted the pay chart with “a brigadier general with 16 years…” It doesn’t take someone with more than 10 seconds experience with the military to know there’s no such thing as a General officer with less than 20 years. Just because the pay chart has an entry for it doesn’t mean it’s happening.
With this fool, the only way a CPT could be pulling down $90k a year is if he had 10-12 years in and was living in one of the higher BAH areas. A CPT with 10 years is either prior service or on the cusp of making Major and therefore a small slice of the CPT population.
As far as breaking our pay down by the hour, the shortest work week I’ve ever had in the Army was 40 hours.
“The average enlisted soldier…” E-1 thru E-9, between 1 and 36 years in service. Define “average.”
Who gives a shit if the “average” enlisted soldier makes more than a civilian with an Associates. Most military jobs require significant technical and managerial skills. If the “average” enlistee was a new Staff Sergeant, that would mean they’ve been doing their job for probably 8-12 years. Any non-college civilian with that much time at their profession should be doing very well for themselves. And comparing an enlistee to a junior college graduate makes it sound like soldiers are stupid or unskilled. Far from it. In order to meet NCO promotion requirements most soldiers have to have an Associates worth of college credits.
If that ass nozzle really gave a shit about truly finding out what a military member does to earn their pay and benefits, the tone of his article would have been much different. This is typical liberal drivel. When the budget crunch comes, instead of cutting the benefits of those who sit back and take, lets go after the military, because as Jonn said, they will just sit and take it. Oh and while we are at it, lets social engineer the shit out of the military, screw retirees out of their medical care and break faith any other way we can. All while a war is going on. It defies logic how this shit is tolerated.
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