Originally Posted By: Astro14
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: Joe1
When a prospective candidate applies for military service they are administered an ASVAB test.
Hang on a minute, the candidate pool isn't "the US" it's those applying to serve. It seems that we as a society, guidance counselors, etc don't value such things and don't "steer" the people in that direction equally.
It's not much different from saying the bottom % of a graduating class should pick a blue collar trade like auto mechanics then being surprised when an audi dealership needs a robot connected to HQ engineering to point out what to do.
An all volunteer military has a moral advantage-- everyone signed up to be there-- but a draft brings in expertise and more walks of life. The problem with that is, what sort of continuity does one get without the draftees being career soldiers but rather in for a year or two?
You've got this all backwards, and are trying to say that people who apply to the military aren't as good as the average when nothing could be further from the truth.
The "candidate pool" that has been tested is the US population of eligible age, not just those applying to the military.
And 75% of graduating high school seniors, not just those applying, but all graduating seniors, FAIL to meet the minimum standards for military service. It's a combination (a depressing combination, really) of lack of intellectual performance on the ASVAB, lack of minimum physical fitness, or drug use, or history of criminal behaviour.
That's the real issue - 3/4 of our population cannot meet military minimum standards for service.
Say it any way you like, but 3/4 of our youth are either too dumb, too fat, or too amoral to join.
And that should frighten, and sadden, us all.
Had to go look this stuff up, as I never took this test, never heard of it before. So I'm not sure how this isn't a reflection of the pool of candidates trying to get into the armed forces, and not necessarily the population at large. [Granted, if a majority of the population applies or otherwise tests, then it would reflect--but I'm not sure what the take rate is.]
Wikipedia does say that it is a normalized test, so a score of 50% does mean smack dab in the middle.
Quote:
The ASVAB was first introduced in 1968 and was adopted by all branches of the military in 1976. It underwent a major revision in 2002. In 2004, the test's percentile rank scoring system was renormalized, to ensure that a score of 50% really did represent doing better than exactly 50% of the test takers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Services_Vocational_Aptitude_Battery
They couldn't have done that first, so I didn't waste an entire day, half a tank of gas, and miss a date with my girlfriend?!
