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Comment by wolverine876 | Hacker News Reader

Are you claiming that billionaires serve at the same rate as others? Or that there are many billionaires in the military?

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They're even more rare in the military than in the general population. Firstly for the obvious reason - they don't need any of the benefits so they don't join. Secondly - someone that becomes that wealthy while serving (via a trust-fund, large inheritance, or winning the lottery) would no longer be a good fit for the military. They usually get offered an Honorable Discharge. However, if they still desire to serve the remainder of their term, they can place the money into a blind trust.

> someone that becomes that wealthy while serving (via a trust-fund, large inheritance, or winning the lottery) would no longer be a good fit for the military. They usually get offered an Honorable Discharge.

That's shocking. Where is this rule? Have you seen it happen? I didn't know wealth defined fitness for service.

Of course wealth defines fitness for service (in America, anyway).

Isn't "money for college and healthcare" kinda obvious about it? Like there's almost a wink and a nudge at the end of it.

It's super blatant that having very few economic options and no healthcare chooses fitness for service for you.

In the UK it’s pretty common for wealthy upper-class people to do a few years in the Army before they take over the family business.

The evidence is to the contrary--middle class and above are over-represented in the US military.

"Their median family income is more than $73,000, compared with $66,000 for civilians, and recruits are most likely to come from families in the middle of the wealth distribution, with median wealth of $87,000, almost $10,000 more than civilians."

This is for enlisted members. It's probably safe to have some intuition that officers will skew wealthier.

I just gave you an example of someone who was still in as a billionaire.

There have been many billionaires, or billionaire-equivalent for their time-period, in my tiny unit alone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Cheshire_Yeomanry_off...

Thanks. Quickly looking at the links, it seems all pre-WWI, mostly 19th century. Is that still true?

No, as I said the Squadron was operationally commanded by a billionaire as recently as the 1980s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Grosvenor,_6th_Duke_of_...

It's still very common for upper class people to join the Army in the UK.

Thanks for explaining it all!

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