Gina-Marie Cheeseman: How the Military-Industrial Complex Continues to Exploit America’s Poor
[Gina-Marie Cheeseman is a writer. She can be reached at: ginamariecheeseman@yahoo.com.]
It is more than a cliché to state that the rich make war while the poor fight them. As a character in the French movie Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement) stated, “The poor make the cannons of their own self destruction, but the rich sell them.” History shows that America’s poor were disproportionately drafted into the military.
Four days after the reading of the Declaration of Independence from the town hall balcony in Boston, townsmen were ordered to show up for a military draft. “The rich, it turned out, could avoid the draft by paying for substitutes; the poor had to serve.” During the Civil War the Conscription Act of 1863 “provided that the rich could avoid military service: they could pay $300 or buy a substitute.” The Confederacy also had a similar conscription law which “provided that the rich could avoid service.”1
During the invasion and occupation of the Philippine Islands from 1898-1902, African-Americans had mixed reactions. They had enlisted in the military for the same reasons their descendants have enlisted: to try to get ahead in a racist and class conscious society. “There was the simple need to get ahead in a society where opportunities for success were denied the black man, and the military life gave such possibilities.”
The wealthy and privileged during World War I were allowed to avoid military service, and “African-Americans, immigrants, and men with lower levels of education,” according to a 2004 report on the demographics of military personnel, were over-represented. The study also points out that during World War II and the Korean War the very richest and poorest of the population were under-represented. The Vietnam War allowed the richest in society to avoid serving overseas by joining the National Guard, or “seeking educational, occupational, or medical deferments.”2
The Congress abolished the draft in 1972, thus creating a volunteer military. The 2004 report cites two studies done on military enlistment since the draft ended. The first study cited looked at the high school class of 1972, who were the first to enter the military after the draft ended, and found that “those who joined the military were of lower socioeconomic status and more likely to be black than those who did not serve.” The second cited study looked at high school seniors from the classes of 1984 to 1991, and found that the parents’ amount of education “was negatively related to joining the armed forces within two years of high school graduation.”2
The 2004 report takes aim at the idea that enlistment in the military functions as a social-level. According to the report, from the founding of the U.S. “the various systems of selective conscription used to staff the military…have privileged the wealthy and politically powerful.”2 A 2007 Associated Press analysis found that 75 percent of U.S. troops killed in Iraq came from small towns where per capita income is below the national average, and over half from towns where the percentage of people living in poverty is above the national average.3...
Read entire article at Dissident Voice
It is more than a cliché to state that the rich make war while the poor fight them. As a character in the French movie Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement) stated, “The poor make the cannons of their own self destruction, but the rich sell them.” History shows that America’s poor were disproportionately drafted into the military.
Four days after the reading of the Declaration of Independence from the town hall balcony in Boston, townsmen were ordered to show up for a military draft. “The rich, it turned out, could avoid the draft by paying for substitutes; the poor had to serve.” During the Civil War the Conscription Act of 1863 “provided that the rich could avoid military service: they could pay $300 or buy a substitute.” The Confederacy also had a similar conscription law which “provided that the rich could avoid service.”1
During the invasion and occupation of the Philippine Islands from 1898-1902, African-Americans had mixed reactions. They had enlisted in the military for the same reasons their descendants have enlisted: to try to get ahead in a racist and class conscious society. “There was the simple need to get ahead in a society where opportunities for success were denied the black man, and the military life gave such possibilities.”
The wealthy and privileged during World War I were allowed to avoid military service, and “African-Americans, immigrants, and men with lower levels of education,” according to a 2004 report on the demographics of military personnel, were over-represented. The study also points out that during World War II and the Korean War the very richest and poorest of the population were under-represented. The Vietnam War allowed the richest in society to avoid serving overseas by joining the National Guard, or “seeking educational, occupational, or medical deferments.”2
The Congress abolished the draft in 1972, thus creating a volunteer military. The 2004 report cites two studies done on military enlistment since the draft ended. The first study cited looked at the high school class of 1972, who were the first to enter the military after the draft ended, and found that “those who joined the military were of lower socioeconomic status and more likely to be black than those who did not serve.” The second cited study looked at high school seniors from the classes of 1984 to 1991, and found that the parents’ amount of education “was negatively related to joining the armed forces within two years of high school graduation.”2
The 2004 report takes aim at the idea that enlistment in the military functions as a social-level. According to the report, from the founding of the U.S. “the various systems of selective conscription used to staff the military…have privileged the wealthy and politically powerful.”2 A 2007 Associated Press analysis found that 75 percent of U.S. troops killed in Iraq came from small towns where per capita income is below the national average, and over half from towns where the percentage of people living in poverty is above the national average.3...