• I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    while the USA depends on keeping some people so poor and their prospects so bleak that joining the military starts to look like a relatively good option.

    Yes, that and also more than half of our military personnel are not enlisted soldiers, they are hired contractors. Half of those contractors are not US citizens, but “host country nationals” or “third country nationals.” The latter are migrant workers who suffer the worst working conditions with no recourse and very low pay. If the US did not depend so heavily on contractors, conscription would be necessary and people would get upset and start to question why we need so much military activity in the first place.

    https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/social/corporate