Life comes with a lot of costs– life, as it turns out, is expensive. I once knew a young couple, both veterans, that wanted to start a family. They were actively thinking that a deployment, and the money that would come with that, would be a great way to leverage themselves into a financial position such that they could afford to have a kid. For a lot of people in the military, deployment is a stressful time but also a time to make financial gain. How much of a trade-off is a year of your life worth? It can be worth quite a lot– a bit of financial infusion at a critical time can launch a career… or a life.  But at what cost, and what risk?

If this is what it takes to “set people up”, maybe a re-thinking of social priorities is in order.