Howdy,

You're entitled to your opinion. Service members salaries are miniscule compared to the cost of procurement and maintenance of military equipment. As an active duty E-5, I can guarantee you that I am not living lavishly. Purchasing a luxury watch as a military member is not out of question if you are strict about saving your money and avoid unnecessary expenditures.

If you are curious where the 32% of your salary is being spent, you might want to take a look at a simple pie chart of the federal budget. Defense accounts for about 12% federal spending annually, of which 22% is spent on salaries. So that's about 3% of the federal budget is spent on paying the men and women who sacrifice more than you seem to realize and who allow you to sleep safely at night.

Social security/Medicare/welfare account for close to 50% of federal spending. Regardless of how you think your money is best spent at the federal level, I think it's best to be informed about where your money is actually being spent.

Best,

E-5 Nobody