Wage inequality in America vs Canada and Australia in the Armed Forces

Originally posted by SymbolicLogic
reply to post by Rudy2shoes

 

It isn't me. It is something that has been done for centuries.

Something that Australia is openly doing.

But why? Why are these smaller nations trying to get more experienced, American, troops? (well they speak English, duh.)
But once they get those troops, what are they going to use them for? How many years is this going to go on before it becomes a cultural 'norm'?

The Aussie armed forces are probably better trained than American, see the Australian SAS for ref.

reply to post by biggilo


We don't scream like girlies and ask for air support just cause someone takes a pot shot at us.

P

reply to post by pheonix358


prolly cause you guys don't have drones supporting your fire teams?

reply to post by SymbolicLogic


We prefer paying our soldiers and their families a proper living wage. And yes we do have drones and communication gear and all that good stuff.

Zing



P

If Aussie soldiers are spending their cash in oz, they don't have much really.
The exchange only seems to be something that effects TV, as in the numbers on the screen, Australia is a very expensive place to live and just seems to cost more every few months, I've roughly compared prices to overseas and was quite shocked with what I found, plus you all so have to go and fight in other nations wars, for other nations, screw that, I wouldn't even want to fight in a war that oz was directly involved with.

Originally posted by biggilo

Originally posted by SymbolicLogic
reply to post by pheonix358

 

Create a business/corporation (online?) with an office in the US that you fund with wages earned in Australia?

Buy from online American businesses?

But America is in breach of International taxation laws anyway, so no matter where you go doesn't 'Uncle Sam' tax you on your citizenship?

The ONLY way out of this is to relinquish your citizenship which is ridiculous on so many different levels.

Unless something really big has changed, that depends. When I was getting lined out to go drive trucks in Iraq in 2004 (family issues made me choose one or the other and it didn't happen in the end) I was being offered $80,000 base pay with expected money running as high as $120,000 for a 12 month contract and 100%, totally Tax free. The catch was, I had to count to the day, how many days I was inside the United States itself for that tax year and contract period.

That meant of the R&R periods they were paying 50% of the cost for, anywhere in the world a driver wanted to take the couple periods off, I believe one of them could be back home without breaking the # of days to come under I.R.S. jurisdiction for taxing. They were almost morbidly honest about how that turned out for some people who broke the tax rules and spent the money anyway without that 1/3rd hold back. Err... They aren't a forgiving bunch at the IRS, that's for sure.

Originally posted by pheonix358
The other problem is that you have to be an Australian Citizen to be in our armed forces. Sort of logical if you think about who you want defending your own country.

Actually, not correct... www.visabureau.com...

Commonwealth citizens and Nepalese (Ghurkhas) can join UK armed forces, AFIK.

To the OP. The problem with comparisons is that you may be comparing apples to oranges. The US basic pay may be less but do they get access to more comprehensive benefits e.g. free accommodation, heath care, family support et al? To properly compare you need to take the whole package into account and when that is done i bet the difference is not so marked.

Regards

reply to post by Mobidinc


Not all of the American states have the same cost of living. But most of the corporations in the states have had enough support to be able to pay the citizens insufficient wages.