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I think most countries draft when you're 18, the US is one of the exceptions with a volunteer army.
The US also has the most effective and disciplined force on the globe as well. Coincidence? I think not.
If you ask most ranking military officers, they completely oppose drafting of any kind. It greatly reduces the morale, skill level, and effectiveness of the force, in order to simply achieve a greater man power.
However, then again, some would say the US military is drafting, economically, that is. The poor and underpriveleged are disproportionatley represented in the service, and it is rare to find children from the top two quintiles of family incomes enlisting, or even in the service at all. They join "voluntarily" as defined by not signing their name with a gun to their head, but in reality, they are pressured by lack of legitimate alternative options.
My daughter born in '81 ( not sure if that is gen X or gen Y ) managed to obtain a BS in Geology and a masters degree in Hydrology with less than $5000 debt. She had minimal assistance from us, but mostly she did it on her own, by WORKING & SAVING ( what an outrageous concept! ) in high school. She managed to obtain the masters degree with no out of pocket expenses at the Univ of Nevada.
As fate would have it, up to now she has not pursued employment in Geology-Hydrology and has no intention of doing so. She has decided to pursue a career as a yoga teacher. Thus far she has been making a go of it. Spends summers in Europe and the rest of the year in Maui.
Randomdude wrote:
However, then again, some would say the US military is drafting, economically, that is. The poor and underpriveleged are disproportionatley represented in the service, and it is rare to find children from the top two quintiles of family incomes enlisting, or even in the service at all. They join "voluntarily" as defined by not signing their name with a gun to their head, but in reality, they are pressured by lack of legitimate alternative options.
There's alot of truth in this statement, yet a legal draft is a whole different animal. Even with a legal draft in place, a big % of those drafted were on the lower rungs of the economic ladder or those lacking the wherwithal to avoid getting drafted. My response to the draft was to enlist in the Air Force, knowing that I'd have a better life in the Air Force than I would in the army or the marines. With no draft in place, I'd have never enlisted in the Air Force. I would have no military experience to my name. Yes, I chose to enlist in the Air Force, but that choice was a choice between the lesser of two evils.
Last edited by CosmicWizard; 08-14-2009 at 08:46 AM..
I went out today to walk my dog at a park. Also did some thinking and general observations (relating to this thread, boomers vs gen x gen y).
Gen X and Y all got scammed by education after the mid 80's. There's no way around it in my mind. There's all these buzzwords and cool things people are doing to try to catch up, but they dont address the problem.
-Multi tasking
-Intense workout regimines
-All these "quick" fixes intended to improve your life. Quick 5 minute meals in the morning. The quick workout. All your quick "apps" for your apple iphone. People are trying to cram as much as they can into a day in order to "maximize it".
-Your DVR and Tivo. You can't even spare to watch a 30 second commercial.
But none of the things people are doing address the root problem. They got scammed 20 years ago. Thrown massively behind the 8 ball. No one needed all this 30 years ago for the simple bachelors at the state university that could build a downpayment for a house. Or not at the intensity like it is now.
Drshang brought up some good points about, x and y'ers need to be more inventive than the previous generation. But they can't invent more time.
I was watching "Woodstock, Then and Now" the other night, and it struck me....I know why gen X&Y hates us. Their music sucks and they're jealous!
So many tunes from the Woodstock era are used in contemporary films and advertising....the stuff is still fresh and unaffected by the passage of 40+ years. This music will still be heard long after the boomers are gone.
Gen X&Y's music is, for the most part, forgetable....and will likely die with them.
And I love when X&Yers deride boomers for their dreadful grasp of modern technology....I guess they never heard of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and lots of other boomers who are pretty good with those computer things!
So many tunes from the Woodstock era are used in contemporary films and advertising....the stuff is still fresh and unaffected by the passage of 40+ years. This music will still be heard long after the boomers are gone.
Gee, I wonder why? Could it be that the biggest consumers for those films and goods are ahem...boomers?
I don't know a single Gen-X or Gen-Y that cares about boomer music, and that is not because it is worse, but because they did not grow up with it.
The fact that Boomers are still talking about Woodstock is rather amusing though...they just can't get over the fact that they are aging.
Gee, I wonder why? Could it be that the biggest consumers for those films and goods are ahem...boomers?
I don't know a single Gen-X or Gen-Y that cares about boomer music, and that is not because it is worse, but because they did not grow up with it.
The fact that Boomers are still talking about Woodstock is rather amusing though...they just can't get over the fact that they are aging.
I was in a workshop on generational differences run by our company about a year ago. The instructor split us into two groups; the Boomers and the rest (mainly Xers). We were given a number of tasks such as "name 3 people who changed the world". We were also asked to name three songs. Two things came out of that task. The first was that there was a lot of unanimity amongst the Boomers about which songs were memorable and the second was that we all knew the chorus. The song we chose to sing was American Pie. There was, however, no such unanimity amongst the Xers and they were actually incapable of finding a piece of music that they all knew the words to.
There was, however, no such unanimity amongst the Xers and they were actually incapable of finding a piece of music that they all knew the words to.
This would not surprise me, Gen-X saw an increase in counter-cultures and more than any other generation divided itself up. You had "the punks", "the metal heads", "the jocks", etc. All of this is primarily from Gen-X, where as the Boomers were much more homogeneous.
Of course, I think this says little about the quality of the music. But the music from Gen-X had much greater variety than any recent generation, of course a lot of the music was actually created by Boomers!
Also, the music from the Gen-X period often does not have clearly understandable lyrics. I'm sure most Gen-X are familiar with some of the most popular songs, just not the lyrics. Such as:
Gee, I wonder why? Could it be that the biggest consumers for those films and goods are ahem...boomers?
I don't know a single Gen-X or Gen-Y that cares about boomer music, and that is not because it is worse, but because they did not grow up with it.
The fact that Boomers are still talking about Woodstock is rather amusing though...they just can't get over the fact that they are aging.
About 75% of the stuff I listen to was made between 1960 and 1975. I am 27. I share the notion that most music made after 1980 (primarily gen x and y), and especially after 1990, is completely forgettable. I have to give the 80's some credit because a few artists who will never die made alot of their work then, like MJ or Journey. I doubt when X and Y are approaching their 40's they are going to be popping in some old Britney Spears or Chingy, like boomers today pop in Jimi, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Beatles or The Doors.
Todays music isnt made to live, its made to sell as many albums as possible while its the "in" thing, and then be disposed of.
The fact that Boomers are still talking about Woodstock is rather amusing though...they just can't get over the fact that they are aging.
Wake up and smell the roses....everyone on the planet is a day older today than they were yesterday! We're all aging, and that's better than the alternative...if you know what I mean.
I was watching "Woodstock, Then and Now" the other night, and it struck me....I know why gen X&Y hates us. Their music sucks and they're jealous!
I figure it has more to do with fiscal deficits and unfunded future liabilities.
The music I listen to is similar to that of the "Woodstock generation", only, everyone's more talented.
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