yes, i'm ex-military & one of the the good things about the military is that there are not the financial extremes that we see in the supposed capitalistic system. a general might make 10 or 15 times what the avg enlisted man makes, not the 500 times that many CEOs make more than their avg employee.

Yep. No better example of socialism in action, than the military. Any military!

That's more or less my own observation, and I hated it. It's the number 1 reason I am so opposed to socialism as an economic system. There is no personal freedom, no individual, thinking outside the box is not only frowned upon but actively prevented and punished. Anyone who thinks that would be a good model for society has to be a conformist, who would rather be just another cog in a machine, nothing more than a tool in the hands of an uncaring society.

The genius of a capitalist system, or really any one that is semi-hierarchical or composed of many independent hierarchies is that it provides both opportunity for the cohesion and belonging that those like you enjoy, and room for those independent thinkers and non conformists to rise to the top and have a more significant role than just doing what they are told. You get the best of both worlds.

They have to make compromises if they want to get their cannon fodder.