But the army is a cost center! The workers have some money shaved off their salary to pay for an army that allows delinquents and half-disabled to pew-pew guns in the forest, leaving them in peace. It's not comparable to a productive entreprise that needs to build things for people or perish.

For instance, if Google fails and cant profit, it cant just shoot at their client until they pay. Your organisation can.

> It's not comparable to a productive entreprise that needs to build things for people or perish.

Well we had to build an Army to win against fascism in the Second World War or we all would have perished.

And 'perished' means literally dead or subject to fascism, not just going out of business.

WW2 was 70+ years ago. The USSR fell 30+ years ago. Military budgets are still incredibly high. The army as it is today does not need to be that efficient. And even during WW2 times the US did not face a credible threat of invasion. The last time the US faced an invasion on the mainland was during the war of 1812.

> The army as it is today does not need to be that efficient.

You want the Army to be... less efficient? Spend more for less capability?

No I mean that for the US army today the downside to the army being inefficient is that money is wasted. Not great, but not a disaster. For a different country that could mean the country gets invaded or the government collapses (like Afghanistan).

Middle and upper management get there via connections and picking things up on their own. It's unsurprising that they don't want to be subjected to competition with lesser people who can "merely" be trained to do their job as well, or better.

Some jobs can be learned on the job.

But I'm glad that learning to kill people (military) is not taught that way.

If your job is something like a staff officer in a Brigade, you could learn that on the job, the Google way, because exercising is also 'the job', but they don't get you to do that - instead they take the time to fully pull you out of all work commitments for dedicated personal development. These periods of personal development are about personal skills rather than combat training, which you've already done by this point.