• PugJesus@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The failed deal comes after the Army National Guard blew $88 million on a deal with NASCAR, that also yielded 20 recruits, according to USA Today.

    I can’t help but feel 88 million could possibly be used for other personnel retention efforts, which might help the fact that every veteran, positive or negative about the US, will tell you the same goddamn thing - don’t join, because the military doesn’t give a fuck about your wellbeing.

    • mars296@fedia.io
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      5 months ago

      They could have had over 4x the effectiveness by simply offering 88 18-yearolds $1 million dollars each to enlist.

    • Hegar@fedia.io
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      5 months ago

      It was $88M for 0 recruits, per that USA Today article:

      The Guard received 24,800 recruiting prospects from the program in 2012, documents show. In those cases, potential recruits indicated the NASCAR affiliation prompted them to seek more information about joining. Of that group, only 20 met the Guard’s qualifications for entry into the service, and not one of them joined.

      The $88M was National Guard spending on nascar from 2011-13. The 20 recruits who made the right choice were just in 2012, but the military.com article that daily beast is reporting on says ‘potentially no recruits’ when describing the whole nascar deal.

      The craziest part to me is the 25k prospects yielding 20 qualified candidates. 99.92% were unfit for service.

      • The_v@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        2012, butThe craziest part to me is the 25k prospects yielding 20 qualified candidates. 99.92% were unfit for service.

        Well they did advertise at NASCAR…

      • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        99.92% were unfit for service.

        It’s that strict conservative diet of pork cracklin’s, copenhagen and budweiser.

      • Kaboom@reddthat.com
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        5 months ago

        I wonder what the reasons were. Probably some had allergies or some minor shit like that. With the amount of waivers these days, there’s probably only 20 people in the military who are actually fit for service

    • Kaboom@reddthat.com
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      5 months ago

      Yeah, seriously. Word of mouth is stronger than advertising, and its very negative for the military

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      If they spend that $88 million on actually providing the benefits they promised it would have been not wasteful in the first place but also would have gotten more recruits.

  • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The fact the Coast Guard spent four million dollars per recruit on a NASCAR campaign is unreal. Yet after they’ve served they’ll be lucky to get a free massage.

    • Nomad@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      It was National Guard not Coast Guard, Coast Guard doesn’t have that kind of budget. Never had, never will.

      • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I think I read somewhere that the number of active duty Coast Guard is less than the number of New York City police officers.

        • Nomad@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Coast Guard has something like 50k active, reserve and civilian workforce and NYPD is like 55k

  • M500@lemmy.ml
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    5 months ago

    It’s kinda crazy, that they are spending this much and still can’t attract soldiers.

    I never hear anything but bad stories about being in the military, so I’m not surprised that nobody wants to join.

    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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      5 months ago

      When I was growing up, Military Vets in my mind were like 60+ yos who have a lifetime of wisdom.

      Today, half the military vets at my job are around 30 years old, and while proud to serve, commiserate over how fucked up it was.

      Where the other half are around 45yo and complain about how difficult it is to get support and strongly tell their children not to join the military.

      • M500@lemmy.ml
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        5 months ago

        I met a guy once who joined at like 17 or something, just super young. Then he got is pension after 20 years or something, then he was a cop and got a cop pension after the 20 years.

        So he was in his 50s and fully retired. When I asked him what he does with his free time, he said he goes to the gym and spends time with his daughter.

        That double pension thing just sounds so great, at this point in my life. I sometimes wish I’d done that. But I’d probably end up dead in Afghanistan .

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    You know the Army is in trouble when they offer free college tuition these days and people still aren’t interested.

      • Kaboom@reddthat.com
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        5 months ago

        When has the GOP ever taken the heritage foundation seriously? At best, they just copy parts of the gop to help imply a causality

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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      5 months ago

      People have realized that a college education is largely a sham. It was different when everyone believed it was the key to success and wealth.

        • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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          5 months ago

          It an industry to extract profit more than it is about education. That’s why people have student loan debt decades after graduating. It’s not that you can’t get a good education and use it to further a career. It’s that it’s become a machine to create debt and trap people.

          I dated a lawyer who griped that she naively got into law to do good and ended up working for a firm representing a major arms manufacturer because of student debt. Last I heard, she became a public defender, which is awesome, but not a choice a lot of people in that position can or will make.

  • Tygr@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Government is known not to support their troops after they return. Parents are telling their kids to not join and now it’s finally being seen in enrollment numbers.

  • Media Bias Fact Checker@lemmy.worldB
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    5 months ago
    Daily Beast Media Bias Fact Check Credibility: [Medium] (Click to view Full Report)

    Name: Daily Beast Bias: Left
    Factual Reporting: Mixed
    Country: United States of America
    Full Report: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/daily-beast/

    Check the bias and credibility of this article on Ground.News


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    • x4740N@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      The ground news Instagram account is full of right wingers in the comments