I think hairsplitting pre- vs post-tax income in this context is a distraction. $20k/month is a quarter mil a year. Worst case, you live in a high tax state, y

I think hairsplitting pre- vs post-tax income in this context is a distraction. $20k/month is a quarter mil a year. Worst case, you live in a high tax state, you might pay $100k in total tax, state + federal + local. That leaves a take-home of $140k/year. Still almost 3x as much as a soldier making $50k/year. The larger point is that, yet again, we have a govt bureaucracy handling a budget in hamfisted ways. (Big rigid hierarchy >> underpay recruits >> wow, the org is bloated and still expensive >> we can save money by hiring contractors.) The bureaucracy is is callous to the incentives they're creating. If it's a much better deal to be a private military contractor vs a soldier, what does that do for morale? For cohesion? For career trajectories? (Get trained, quit asap to go private with a big pay bump...) This general pattern has a deep historical roots. Many countries at various points in history have hollowed out their formal military by shifting to hired mercenaries. That pattern has a bad track record.