“Effective June 1, 2006, the maximum monthly pay for active-duty service members who are proficient in another language will be increased from $300 to $1,000. For National Guard and reserve members, a $6,000 per-year bonus will be offered.” Obviously the need is real. The e-mail continues to say the incentive program will “focus more on critical languages, such as Arabic and Chinese, and bring 1,000 people into the corps.” Basically, the Marine Corps is projecting a shortfall of 1,000 linguists, but continues to discharge linguists under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” - Antonio Agnone, June 27, 2007I suppose that even two dozen is a drop in the bucket compared to a projected need of 1,000, but if all things were equal, pun intended, the proverbial "10%" is nothing to be ignored wholesale.
Now, what will it take for our dear Harvard economisti to take notice?
