Government Shutdown

Unless you've been sleeping under a rock, I'm sure you're aware of the potential government shutdown that is about to occur.  There's been much talk about what will be closed, who will or won't have to work, what beneftis will still be available, and so on.  As usual, the Democrats and Republicans are telling different sides of the story as we all standby and just pray for a positive outcome.  But I'm not here to talk about politics...

As with every company, the organizations that make up our government have good employees and bad employees. There are dedicated people that go to work everyday, do their job, and don't mope around and complain when maybe at times they have every reason to do so.  I am certain there are also employees who don't work as hard as they could and manage to fall through the cracks, just squeaking by year to year wasting taxpayers money.  But, there is no time, or money (obviously), to figure out who is good and who is bad, so in the end, innocent government employees will have to suffer, including our military men and women.

If you have no connection to the military, you may have never put much thought into how much a soldier gets paid.  If you manage your money correctly and don't experience any dire life circumstances, you will do just fine, but trust me, you will never strike it rich in the military.

Military ranks start at E-2 (sometimes E-1) and go up to O-10. "E" stands for "enlisted" and "O" stands for "officer."  Enlisted personnel are lower ranked than officers. To put it in regular civilian terms, if you're an E-2, you are similar to an intern for a huge corporation and if you're an O-10, you're probably the CEO or CFO.  However, in the military, it does not matter what your rank is, you will have a lot of responsibility at an early age and endure a lot of sacrifice and compromise. So don't mistake the responsibilities of an E-2 for the responsibilities of an intern.  They may have similar ranks for explanation purposes, but their responsibilities and importance to their companies are much different.

An E-2 in the military, just starting out, will make just under $20,000 a year in salary.  He or she will also collect a housing allowance, which covers the cost of rent for whichever area the servicemember is stationed.

To put it in perspective, an E-2, also known as a "Private" in the Army, will most likely be fresh out of high school, have completed training in special operations for combat situations, and go to Afghanistan, Iraq, or any place where there is conflict.  He is 18 or 19 years old.  A kid.  The year before he would have been playing soccer, hanging out at the mall after school, living a carefree life.  Then he signed up for the military.  He makes less than $50,000 a year when all is said and done.  He shows up to work, no matter what the hour is, no matter how tired he is, no matter how sick he is.  He goes to war when he is asked.  He leaves his family, his friends, his life behind.  And when the government says they will take his pay away, he still puts on his combat boots and goes off to work, because he is a soldier and that's what soldiers do.

I'd like to think that during this government shutdown drama, there are many who are thinking about our troops.  Thinking that it's not fair to punish our already under-respected heroes with no pay when they're already receiving less pay than their work deserves.

I have faith that in the end, our government will make the right decision and I have hope that the innocent government employees will not have to go without pay for long.

God bless.