Middle class military

A new study by the Heritage Foundation finds that contrary to popular belief the middle class, not the poor, make up the bulk of military recruits. More than 85 percent come from middle class areas. The War on Terror has only decreased the percentage of recruits from poor neighborhoods. Those areas provided 18 percent of enlistees in prewar 1999 versus 15 peercent in 2003. It also disproved the notion that those enlisting were high school drop-outs. Close to 98 percent of all enlistees had a high school diploma, compared to 75 percent of nonrecruits nationwide. Tim Kane, who prepared the report, said, "In an education context, rather than attracting underprivileged young Americans, the military seems to be attracting above-average Americans."

Comments

[Stewart]

Some 85% of the country has high-school diplomas. How does that make somebody "above-average"?

Also, the cited report didn't actually look at the pre-enlistment household incomes of military recruits. It looked at the average income from their neighborhoods, based solely on zipcodes.

All that tells you is, as they story itself says, "recruits tend to come from middle-class areas". It says nothing about the recruits themselves.

I'm not suggesting that the report is hugely inaccurate, but it clearly is inaccurate.

[Aaron]

The above-average statement comes from comparing 98% of recruits to 75% of nonrecruits.

And no the study does not look at individual household income (not sure if that is available), but neighborhood is a good indicator. You may have some poor in middle class areas, but you may have some middle class in poor areas. I would think that it would balance itself out leaving a close marker as to household incomes.

It is not perfect, but it goes against the meme that the military is all poor and uneducated. This at least shows some statistical evidence fo the contrary, I have seen none for the left-wing talking points.