It just occurred to me that the reason Bee-dub is evil is that he actually tries to keep paying those who work for him less so that they will quit working for him and go into the military. Cripes, what an evil genius!

No, that is a result of the cronyistic political system we have here in the US. W. Bush's "no child left behind" initiative is certainly a factor in agravating this situation. With this initiative, schools are having to teach to the test, and their funding suffers if they don't perform. Add to this the fact that Bush is not funding this mandate, and the result is that schools work less hard to prevent people from dropping out. If someone is underperforming, with the kinds of budgets the schools have to work with these days, the easiest and most effective way to keep what funding they do have is to allow people to just drop out so their low scores won't reflect badly on the school's overall test scores. If people aren't getting properly educated, they can't compete in the work force. The military is still a viable option for these people, even when they don't succeed in the public schools.

And then of course, there are the tax incentives that are given to companies that move their jobs out of the country. If a significant percentage of the jobs that would pay a living wage leave the country (as they are doing now), eventually, people will not have much choice other than to join the military.