The nation’s third shutdown in 12 years is once again raising anxiety levels among service members and their families because those in uniform are working without pay. While they would receive back pay once the impasse ends, many military families live paycheck to paycheck.
During previous shutdowns, Congress passed legislation to ensure that troops kept earning their salaries, but time is running out before they miss their first paycheck in less than a week.
Historically, one of the most effective ways to motivate or change people’s minds is to put their methods and means of making money at risk.
Not paying your military properly is also one of the worst acts that civilian leadership can do that will create a divide in authority with loyalty, discipline, and morale.
Many of the greatest massacres committed by military forces throughout antiquity were caused because their members decided to go AWOL and mutiny because the state and its leadership were unable or unwilling to pay their military members the wealth they were promised.