I'd agree with that. In times of plenty, sure, I love the fact that I have the option to "retire" at 44. In times where we are staring at a stark budget? How can I ask my friends and family to work hard from age 44 to age 67 to send me a check twice a month for doing nothing? But you bring this up and folks act like you are asking them to murder children. No, man, I'm breaking the myth that you are so uber-special. You got the GI Bill to help you out post-military, a million other side benefits from the States, the VA, etc; and we don't have the money to get the Cadillac deals anymore.
It's hard to field this issue without sounding like an arrogant ego-maniac but I will try.
When you look at the full picture, the broad view. What you get out of military service vs. what you get by staying out of military service. It is easy to see why so many attend the parades but never actually march in one. I served between 1988-1992, my initial take home pay was just over 5 hundred dollars a month I believe. I received free medical care but every time I had to utilize it, my injuries were in direct result of my duties. I suppose if my appendix burst while I was in uniform that might have been a nice 'benefit'. These injuries, no matter whose fault or the nature of, can never be compensated in a court of law via a lawsuit by the way. My military career ended because someone I never met wasn't paying attention when he packed my parachute. He was court martialed due to the gross negligence involved, tossed out on his ear with a dishonorable discharge. I will never know his name and if I did, I could never sue him. Go Go Army Health Care!
I received free housing, I lived in a barracks and shared a room with someone I really didn't like. I'm a likable guy, this guy was an inconsiderate ass. Sparing much detail here, I'd of rather been allowed to sleep outside behind the barracks. Uniforms? Haircuts? The Army issued me 2 pairs of BDUs and gave me X dollars for a clothing allowance yearly. When I was done crawling under barbed wire (constantia) wire, cutting through it or breaching it via other ways. My uniforms would be 'unserviceable' due to rips and rends in them and I had to replace them out of pocket. The clothing allowance was laughable. I had to pay for my own haircuts at about 8 bucks twice a month. Later 10 bucks a week.
I was transferred to another unit where the training was at a far faster pace, we'd deploy for training for up to 3 months with no prior warning given. I was issued 6 pairs of BDUs and 4 additional pairs of boots and I shredded through them as if they were paper and I had to pay to replace them. Never mind I was 'ordered' to jump into a wire perimeter in a flak jacket so the rest of my squad could run across my back. Never mind I was stuck there until the sun came up and the exercise declared over and someone finally came to cut me free of the wire, I had to pay to replace the uniform, $40.00 I think. Jump pay was nice but $100.00 a month hardly covered the additional risk we put ourselves through. I'm not going to go into the injuries you exposed yourself to while doing that or the additional risk you placed yourself in should your unit deploy in a real deal situation.
Add to all that the way you were just expected to lay all your constitutional protections aside concerning the legal system. It was explained to me and I signed the form when told to, but thinking back, I'm positive I didn't understand the depth of what I was actually signing away.
Sorry if this is sounding snivelly but if anyone is going to put to me the question of what I am willing to give back? Then I have to ask them, why didn't they join the military? Most those people watching the fictional parade I mentioned above will answer, if they do honestly, "I had better things to do than serve my country in uniform."
I served in the Infantry and to the absolute limit of my ability. There are many people in the Army and through all the branches of service, who have it easier cushy even. Their duties not as dangerous or physically demanding. File clerks, Payroll personnel, etc. They said when I was in the Army it took 9 support soldiers to place one man in the field. Those support folks are very important but when you think of people who have it easy in the military, cross the boots on the ground folks off the list. Just a friendly recommendation.
Playing too much with the retirement age would be tricky as it's hard to retain people in fields that do more physical work and are more demanding. It would be harder to grow an Infantry soldier (E-1) into a higher ranking Non-Commissioned Officer (E-6, E-7, E-8) if he had nothing to look forward to for 2-3-4-5-6 enlistments (I hope I counted high enough) than work that would be considered unreasonable by civilian standards, a salary that is well below his experience by private sector standards and a family who has been bounced around the globe and generally not happy about it if he managed to keep a family together. Those high ranking NCO's practically run the military and you have to retain them somehow. And they are now true adults on which extra propaganda fails to work upon.
Longwinded, must stop typing when tired.