Only 30% of today's young adults are "'qualified" to serve in the military?

I was listening to the radio and they were talking about recruitment being down and the guest mentioned that only 30% of today’s young adults are actually qualified to be in the military? I found that statistic shocking. So I did some research and here were the reasons sited:

In their report “Ready, Willing, and Unable to Serve,”5

“Mission: Readiness, “Ready, Willing, and Unable to Serve,” http://cdn.missionreadiness.org/NATEE1109.pdf (accessed January 26, 2018) they report that the main causes of this situation are inadequate education, criminality, and obesity.”

Here is one article I found on this:

I find this very hard to believe and was curious on what others views are on this?

What’s the problem? “We” have equality so that women who can do the same job as men. Just make sure you don’t try to pay them less for doing the same job.

The other 70% can destroy snack foods and rule on video games though! :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

I’m not sure I follow? The report said the main reasons for the lack of qualified personal were the following:

that the main causes of this situation are inadequate education, criminality, and obesity.” Are you saying that those three factors apply more to women?

Is the situation with today’s young really that bad?

Education is key to many of the issues that plague society today. As a country we need to invest far more in education and not just education of the basics.

Education leads to understanding which leads to greater awareness of ones place within society. An educated individual is more likely to feel less disenfranchised which in turn leads to a desire to want to participate in society.

Obesity is a problem but it is far deeper than just kids playing video games, we live in a society that embraces processed food, countless businesses churn out cheap low quality food that is designed to enhance the taste sensation but very little else. It is a form of addiction.

Could be a number of things:

  • Obesity
  • processed food(there are items we consumed here in America that is banned in other countries)
  • Lack of healthy food options for lower income families
  • the removal of PE/Athletic sports to save money
  • Environmental issues
  • Laziness
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The deemphasis of PE is a problem, particularly in grade school. Little kids need to exercise their bodies every bit as much as their minds.

Personally I would like to see that aspect of “inadequate education” better explained, but I disagree that we spend more on education. The US is near or at the top of the list of countries on what we spend on education:

And I can tell you as someone who has been a teacher and have known many in that profession that who a students parents are is the most significant factor on how the student performs.

How much is this a change from previous generations?

I would be curious to know what percent of the 70% “unqualified” is the obesity category? In the high school I taught at obesity was not an issue.

That doesnt mean we could not spend more on education but more importantly look at the type of education we are providing. Education encompasses so much more than just maths, english etc.l. Education focused on the sciences, civics, health and wellness, how to be financially responsible, education on giving pupils a wide understanding of the world. The list is endless.

I agree we need to get to parents and the problem is the children of the last 15 years are becoming the parents and these are the people that need to be targeted.

We can talk about parents being responsible ad infinitium but if whatever reason the parents are not engaged or not capable then nothing will change.

not like military is going to be picky if world war breaks out and they start drafting people.

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Ha that is true.

That is an excellent question. Here is a statistic that may provide part of the answer:

“Medicaid pays for nearly 50% of all births in the US.”
**://homafiles.info/2017/04/03/what-percentage-of-babies-are-born-on-medicaid/

The fact is that due to societal, sociological and economic forces many native born Americans are not having children, inparticulary those who do get good paying jobs.

Not sure what that has to do with the percentage of people able to serve now as compared to prior generations…

Whuh? What schools cut PE/sports?

In my neck of the woods, these will be the LAST things to go-even after the “three Rs.”

I’m a little over 1/3 of the way into my career as a teacher and this has been my observation since day 1.

The one constant over the years through all educational reform has been parents. A VAST majority of the time, when a student is failing (be it academically, personally, emotionally, physically, behaviorally), it’s because of lack of involvement of parents. The opposite is true as well-when students do really well, it’s often because their parents are teaching them to be successful young people.

As a teacher, I can directly tell you that it is VERY hard to help a kid succeed when their parents aren’t involved-it’s very hard to teach motivation and drive and desire when it’s not there to begin with.

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Yeah, need some context with historical numbers.

Well, the supposed “healthiest President ever” was not qualified… so, gonna need that context on what these numbers have been over time.

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