Its never going to be a popular opinion that some group of people should not get paid more. However, this is exactly what is causing our inflation. Should the trashman get paid more? Sure everyone can argue they should. Auto-workers? Sure. Doctors? Sure
Wage inflation is driving inflation everywhere. If everyone is paid more then nothing changes in the end. Its all relative.
So if you think the Army should pay more you need to tell us who you think should be paid less.
My answer is let the free market and capitalism decide. I think that is a better system than a socialist or communist system where the government decides. Governments are run by people and people are human and humans have bias and will abuse their power.
I don’t think we all believe everyone should be paid more. Most white collar wage earns get paid fairly or are overpaid.
I’d argue it’s the blue collar workers, in general, that are underpaid. That doesn’t mean I think fast food workers should be paid more anything of the sort. That being said we have a shortage of trade workers, truck drivers, ect. Those people provide a skill that is in limited supply with high demand.
The capitalist approach to the situation is why I think paying these people more is a reasonable solution. It’s a job, being a service member specifically, not many people want to do and they are having problems securing the bodies they need. Regardless of industry those two factors, low supply of workers coupled with high demand, typically leads to wage increases.
As a separate though, as I have suggested in previous threads, inflation can’t be the number one concern in every decision. National defense is a government’s first and most important responsibility. If they can’t get the people and technology they need to provide us with robust national defense and security then they need to do more / better.
Peace through strength.