Re: the underprivileged soldier?
Matt wrote:
I think I read the original stats back when this study started circulating as a reference in other punditry. IIRC their study found that 85% of recruits come from households with incomes ranging from $30,000 to $200,000. IOW, >= $30,000 is “wealthy”.
Such a range is silly, as people whose household earns $30,000 have as little in common with the $200,000 household as they do the Queen of England. Not even remotely comparable financial issues.
If true, that’d be a problem. But “IIRC” doesn’t really rise to the level of a refutation, does it?
I just did what I should have before sending the article - visited the Heritage website for the original study http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/cda05-08.cfm. Turns out there’s plenty there, starting with an interesting comparison of their work with that of a widely cited National Priorities Project paper. The NPP paper foregrounds the top 20 counties, which are mostly poor and rural http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=177&Itemid=107, and produces misleading results, as the Heritage gang rightly points out http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/wm922.cfm. The Heritage study uses three-digit zip codes. NPP’s broader measure, which uses average zip code incomes, shows the $25,000-50,000 range (roughly the second and third income quintiles) over-represented and others under-rep’d http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=179&Itemid=107. Heritage, which uses first-three-Zip-digit data, finds the lowest income quintile under-rep’d (15% of recruits), the next slightly under 20%, and the top three slightly over 20%. Urban areas are under-rep’d, and rural ones over - but not poor rural areas. And since most of the pop lives in metro areas, most recruits come from metro areas, not the sticks. The South is over-rep’d, New England under (big surprise). Recruits are more educated than the general pop. Racial/ethnic mix mirrors general pop.
Without tearing the thing apart, the Heritage study looks serious, unlike their economic freedom work. In any case, it really looks like the poverty draft argument should be retired.
Doug