3 ms·

The nice/bad thing about the military is they can literally train people from the ground up in whatever particular skill sets they need. No matter how obscure.

The nice/bad thing about the military is they can literally train people from the ground up in whatever particular skill sets they need. No matter how obscure. The military pays for people to get medical degrees and all kinds of advanced degrees already. In fact military training is the primary pipeline for people to enter industries with esoteric skill sets. Adding to those skill sets stuff like "chip production" isnt that big of a reach. The brutal reality is that the modern American military is a giant jobs program to begin with. Having a "factory corps" that has "soldiers" who are basically assembly line workers with military retirements and benefits might actually be a plus for alot of people.

jeffreyrogers 5y ago
I'm sure they could do production just fine. It's the R&D that is hard. You can't just train random people from the ground up to be great engineers. The people who are capable of that choose by-and-large to make lots more money in the private sector. Even if you could, good luck making them stay when they can easily make 3x or more by leaving.
- namelessoracle 5y ago
  The military is already full of people who could make 3x by leaving and dont......
  - jeffreyrogers 5y ago
    In what jobs? I don't think that's true. Or it's only true if they make a career change. The jobs it is true for, like pilots, do have a problem with retention and they give large bonuses to keep people in.
    - namelessoracle 5y ago
      If you have a sufficiently high security clearance you will find jobs based on basically that detail alone. Many of which pay much more than what those persons currently make (and yes they would represent a career change) And yes retention is a constant problem for people in specialized training. But even in "grunt" jobs, if individuals are willing to work for a PMC they can make more money. The military trains electrical engineers, network engineers, security engineers, (even a few software engineers), medical doctors, materials scientists, psychologists, psychiatrists and more. The officer corps is filled with people with advanced degrees and training. Most of them are in because of the benefits package they are guaranteed to get and pension. I once met a person who got their medical degree from the military and managed to retire debt free in their late 40s while pulling a military pension and was opening their own medical practice basically free of the debt worries that plagued most doctors (and was able to use their veteran status to get some nice loans to set up their business too). This shocks people but some people actually ARE motivated by a sense of patriotism as well, and in the military it becomes possible to work on things that are basically impossible to do in the "real world". Not everyone is universally motivated by wealth so long as they hit a certain degree where they feel safe and secure in their livelihood and future.

jeffreyrogers 5y ago

I'm sure they could do production just fine. It's the R&D that is hard. You can't just train random people from the ground up to be great engineers. The people who are capable of that choose by-and-large to make lots more money in the private sector. Even if you could, good luck making them stay when they can easily make 3x or more by leaving.

namelessoracle 5y ago
The military is already full of people who could make 3x by leaving and dont......
- jeffreyrogers 5y ago
  In what jobs? I don't think that's true. Or it's only true if they make a career change. The jobs it is true for, like pilots, do have a problem with retention and they give large bonuses to keep people in.
  - namelessoracle 5y ago
    If you have a sufficiently high security clearance you will find jobs based on basically that detail alone. Many of which pay much more than what those persons currently make (and yes they would represent a career change) And yes retention is a constant problem for people in specialized training. But even in "grunt" jobs, if individuals are willing to work for a PMC they can make more money. The military trains electrical engineers, network engineers, security engineers, (even a few software engineers), medical doctors, materials scientists, psychologists, psychiatrists and more. The officer corps is filled with people with advanced degrees and training. Most of them are in because of the benefits package they are guaranteed to get and pension. I once met a person who got their medical degree from the military and managed to retire debt free in their late 40s while pulling a military pension and was opening their own medical practice basically free of the debt worries that plagued most doctors (and was able to use their veteran status to get some nice loans to set up their business too). This shocks people but some people actually ARE motivated by a sense of patriotism as well, and in the military it becomes possible to work on things that are basically impossible to do in the "real world". Not everyone is universally motivated by wealth so long as they hit a certain degree where they feel safe and secure in their livelihood and future.