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Paycheck to Paycheck: Bone Spurs and Bootlicking

5 min readJun 14, 2025

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The Military’s Loyalty to Trump Costs Their Families Food, Healthcare, and a Future

Credit: Olha Romaniuk

Let’s get something straight: most of the people serving in the U.S. military can’t afford to live in the country they’re defending. That’s not hyperbole. That’s data.

Roughly 60 to 70 percent of active-duty military households earn less than $85,000 a year — a number that puts them squarely in the struggling-to-make-ends-meet zone, especially if they’re stationed in places like San Diego, Washington, D.C., or New York. Even many junior officers, the so-called leaders of tomorrow, barely scrape by when you factor in housing, childcare, and food costs.

And veterans? Over half — around 55 to 60 percent — of veteran households earn under $85,000 a year. That includes retirees, disabled veterans, and those dealing with the lasting impacts of combat, underfunded VA services, or careers disrupted by multiple deployments.

So what do we call a country that demands sacrifice from people it won’t pay enough to live in dignity? Sacrifices from the people Trump calls suckers and losers!

I call it a cult that would color Jim Jones green with envy.

Food Stamps in Camo

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Age of Awareness
Age of Awareness

Published in Age of Awareness

Stories providing creative, innovative, and sustainable changes to the ways we learn | Tune in at aoapodcast.com | Connecting 500k+ monthly readers with 1,500+ authors

Dr. Lauren Tucker
Dr. Lauren Tucker

Written by Dr. Lauren Tucker

A subversive writer looking to save humans from themselves, an exile, not an expat, and a founder of Do What Matters and Indivisible Chicago.

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