>See The Military and the "Poor Recruit" Myth
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>Now the conservative Heritage Foundation has analyzed enlistee demographics by looking at household incomes in the zip codes recruits come from. The results indicate a pool of recruits drawn mainly from the middle class. The largest group of new recruits in 2003 -- 18 percent -- came from neighborhoods with average annual household incomes of $35,000 to $40,000, compared to a median household income of $43,318. In all, the top two-income quintiles (comprising households with incomes starting at $41,688) produced 45 percent of all recruits in 2003. A mere 5 percent came from neighborhoods with average incomes below $20,000 per household.
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>The Heritage findings make sense: While the military offers some attractions in terms of education, training and life experience, the effort and commitment required are so great that service in the enlisted ranks will always lose a cost/benefit comparison with even the most humble minimum-wage job. Noneconomic, nonrational motivations such as patriotism, self-esteem building, or just the desire to change one's life are more compelling factors in the decision to join up.
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>I highlit the last sentance as it certainly applied in my case (particularly the nonrational part, heh) and quite a number of other soldiers that I met.

What I like about the statistics is how it can paint whatever you liked. What's wrong with the data about the recruits' families? Dunno, but let's take their neighborhoods' data instead and behave as if they are representative. We won't even say a word about the recruits' families' data. After all, it's common knowledge that there's no way you can live in a neighborhood which doesn't exactly reflect your economic and/or class status.

I served my term in my country when I was conscripted. Maybe I could have avoided it, but the price would be unknown in terms of my life afterwards - I was already married, had a child, had a job, and didn't want to jeopardize all that just because I was a peacenik. Besides, it was in 81/82 when my country was quite peaceful. I even spent seven years in the reserve after that, again in a funny soldier play where nothing much happened, we were just wasting time. Later, in 1992, I was invited twice again, but the legal grounds for the invitation were very dubious, and I didn't want to be volunteered in a war against our yesterday's brothers. So I told the guys they didn't find me.

And, uh, BTW, my nonrational motivation was the hope I will not come out of the army as a new person, because I knew I'd intimately hate the guy. As luck or wisdom would have it, I was 26 by the time they cut my hair and dressed me in, and I was just way too old to fall for their pedagogy and other dirty tricks. It was a year wasted. The only nice thing was that I met a few guys with the same attitude, made some friends and learned a few technical things (radio, not weapons).