Blind Prophecy

OK, I should be asleep. I want to be asleep. But I flipped over to CNN for a few minutes and I was listening to the discussion re: the draft. It seemed innocent enough and while I don’t particularly like even getting into the conservative trap about who is supporting/disrespecting the troops… there was a red flag moment.

It came when the news anchor said, “a recent study by the Heritage Foundation shows an increase in recruitment from white, educated, middle class communities, proving that troops are signing up out of patriotism, not economic factors.”

Hmm? The Heritage Foundation is among the most conservative think tanks in the nation. I wonder what their study looks like.

OK, well, first off… they don’t actually have any data about the family income of the actual recruits. Their numbers come from the median family income based on the zip code the recruits came from. The assumption is that the median income from the zip code is a good indication of the family income for the recruits. This is not logical. If the argument is being made that most recruits are from the poverty trap and are looking for a way to better their chances, well, why not assume that the recruits represent the lowest family income in any zip code? Or the highest? Without more statistically reliable data than a guess based on the median income, it’s a false conclusion based on assumption.

Second, there is no agreed upon definition of “middle class” in America. It’s a highly contested idea which relies on a variety of factors, not just simple family income data. For example, a family with 9 children earning a combined income of 45K is still living in poverty-like conditions. However, a single man like myself without dependents could thrive on an income of 45K. Additionally, “Middle Class” has as much cultural definition as economic… it implies a certain level of lifestyle. Things like cars, property ownership, entertainment, education and social advantages, etc.

But do you thing the Heritage Foundation takes any of that into consideration? Frankly, no. My best guess is that they define middle class as a family income ranging from $30K to about $50K. I guess this because that is where the bulk of the military recuits they’re pointing to are coming from. Yet, they provide no useful analysis of other socio-econic factors, such as offsetting the incomes to cost-of-living per region, family size, ability to make luxury purchases, and more. They do make a nod to inflation in figuring their statistics, but it’s a minor consideration.

Interestingly, other definitions of “Middle Class” I found on the internet would cast a wider net for the definition – ranging from $30K up to as high as $90K. If the definition of Middle Class is so wide, even if it’s true that the majority of military recruits are coming from the middle class, they’re certainly coming in bulk from the lowest end of that spectrum.

So what does all this mean? Well, it doesn’t mean I’m bashing the troops, it doesn’t mean I’m favoring the draft, and it certainly doesn’t mean that there is enough evidence to state conclusively that the majority of troops are poor and uneducated. It means that the report from the Heritage Foundation has an agenda to redefine how we understand the concept of “middle class,” to usurp the word “patriotic” into another conservative frame, and to give more ammunition for conservatives to challenge the systemic thinking of progressives–who believe we must ackowledge and address complex social, educational, economic and discriminatory systems in military recruitment–as “disrespecting our troops.”

Filed under: livejournal by Jere Keys