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This is hilariously out of touch with reality.
First off, how many redneck trailer park kids joined the military because of a paltry $3,000 signing bonus? The Bush administration scraped restrictions against felons after 9/11. Who, exactly, are the "elites" that shit in a bucket you light on fire once a week? Rich kid don't join the military.
Second, that's not how commissaries work at all. It's not socialism in any way. It's hyper-capitalist if anything.
A huge amount of resources are put into name brand items being shipped across the globe to lock in brand loyalty for life. It's not free either, only duty-free. No import costs. A $4 small pack of sour patch kids or $10 frozen 4-pack of frozen Jimmy Dean breakfast includes shipping costs. Containers from the States cost $80K+ to ship, which the commissary pays for. Every commissary is a business that operates as an independent business. Except for the ones managed by huge contacts to companies.
They're non-profit only because of host country laws about profits without import duties.
But there are many in American soil that are significantly cheaper than Walmart and similar. Of course if a commissary is placed in a base in Okinawa, in the middle of the ocean on the other part of the globe, then stuff is much more expensive
Right, so what you're missing here is that AAFES and NEXCOM are independent corporate entities under the DOD that are almost entirely self-funded (I would guess some basic admin elements are staffed by DOD staff or something very basic, but I'm not sure). That puts them into a weird category of company that is usually referred to as a parastatial corporation or "state-owned company" in most places outside the US. The US usually contracts out rather than have state-owned companies, as a limit to liability.
They're basically 100% independent entities with no taxpayer budget so they can operate with less bureaucracy and government requirements for how they spend their money and contract with vendors and contractors. AAFES has a civilian CEO. Their employees are not members of the military, they're civilians. It IS a non-profit, as they're also captured to only have a limited client base. Their goal is to break even and save money for things like buying a new meat cooler for when the ones they have break. Which means they get much easier taxes to deal with.
They key here is that they save money on things like real estate costs and import/export duties compared to Wal-Mart, but leverage the same corporate relationships. So taxpayer money isn't exactly going to commissaries, they're just not getting charged as much for facilities or utilities because they're leveraging military economies of scale. That does count as a subsidy in a sense, but it's not like they get cash from DOD to run any commissary.
It's not "socialism" in any sense of the term. It's a company store if anything - it's just the one version of this where the prices are not jacked up to exploit people.
You do know the UK and a few European countries also sometimes have commissaries on joint bases or diplomatic properties, right?
idk about you but that would literally be a life-changing amount of money for some people (like me lol, not gonna join the military tho fuck that noise)
I should have put "paltry" in quotes to show it was sarcastic.
I knew plenty of people that joined right out of high school, some weeks before 9/11. Signing bonuses like that were absolutly live changing for many people, which is why they went for it, and went they're not "elites" for shopping at a fucking PX.
OP likely just saw this video https://youtu.be/PQOXdtPBGXI
Lol. Brilliant reaction.
I'm sadly well-educated on the subject matter and wish I wasn't. Or at least wish I had gotten paid.