They just took control house/senate and look .....

[spence]

So back to the point...is the burden of fighting for the American way of life being equally shared among those who enjoy it?

Should it?

-spence

[Bronko]

Originally Posted by spence

So back to the point...is the burden of fighting for the American way of life being equally shared among those who enjoy it?

Should it?

-spence

Its tough having the average guy answer this. If I answered from my personal observations the answer is yes. Every soldier I know or am familiar with through friends and family here in Boston are all well educated and career driven middle class people. They come from all walks of life be it public servants, politicians teachers etc. All with high school diplomas at a minimum, most with college and some with post grad degrees.

This is beacuse it is a cross-section of my personal and social circles. We can all relay stories about our opinions based on our experiences.

The problem is answering the question on a national level, for that we must rely on statistics. Unfortunately, as we all know we could spend a couple of days here posting links

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Nat...rity/wm922.cfm

trying to nail down the exact socio-economic make-up of the greatest fighting force in the history of the world.

"Should it?" ..... I may have to take a stab at this later. Off to court.

[spence]

Originally Posted by Bronko

If I answered from my personal observations the answer is yes.

I think that's the rub, obviously with more service members coming from the south and west...you will have communities that are impacted more and more. But even in RI every so often there's bad news...

But this isn't just a military demographic question. Given the desire to keep the consumer driven economy pumping does the average person really think about Americans overseas while they clammer through a Wal-Mart parking lot at 5am to score some Black Friday goods?

According to experts this war will cost well north of a trillion dollars over this decade while the income gap widens nationally and the National Debt mounts. We all know who can better afford to pay taxes without impacting quality of life.

So it would seem that the military is leaning on poorer communities for recruitment while the Federal Government is leaning on the middle class taxpayer to foot the bill.

Again, this is about the ability to shoulder the "burden" for their policy.

Agree or not 100% I do think Rangel is bringing up a very thoughtful point.

-spence