>From: donald_at_...
>Does *everyone* get a high school diploma? In the UK over half the
>population fails to get the qualifications to get them into any university.
90% of people who end up in the workforce have high school diplomas. 85% overall. And of those who do not, many have equivalencies that do allow them to get higher education. Of those who do not have those, I'd say they pretty much don't want a diploma. Getting a HS diploma in the US is not what you'd call difficult to do, and it's free to every child.
Now, not everyone goes to a college or university as it's costly and some don't have the motivation to do so, but that's not the same as saying that people can't qualify. Again, the military will pay for your college education (heck, I actually came out ahead) if you join. But other than price, and the motivation to work, you have to be pretty dumb not to qualify for one of the less prestigious institutions (of which there are over 2000 not including technical schools some of which might count for officer qualifications).
Put another way, I've worked with an officer who was, as a civilian, a football coach for a high schooll team. I'm telling you, in the US at least, being an officer is mostly a matter of wanting to be an officer.
>Has the Lunar empire ever not been at war? I suspect if it had a long
>period of peace many of those units would wither away.
Contrary to fact. It doesn't matter "if it had a long period of peace," as you say it hasn't. We're only concerned here with the form the current military takes, right? Not a hypothetical.
Mike
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