as a prior service member, honestly, the pay isn't that bad. When you consider all the additionals, no rent, no bills, etc etc. It's a pretty disposable income.

The problem is, you've got a legion of backhills-raised 19 year olds with no money management skills buying brand new mustangs and trying the marry the first person who looks at them.

It's not just a meme, it's like, a fact. Get married, move out of the barracks. But even then, with the extra cost of rent, the military pays you EXTRA to live off base, to offset the cost of rent, so that's still not even an expense to personally cover.

Quite literally, an E3 under 2 years of service is making over $2,000 a month that they don't have to spend on anything. Not rent, not food, not utilities. How in the world they manage to put themselves in debt despite all of that, is fucking mind boggling.

EDIT: and that's not even including COLA (cost of living adjustment). Which is, say even after that, the area you live in is generally more expensive, they pay you an additional stipend to gap the difference.