It's true, but also has corollaries across different groups than just low income. I remember working with a university who was trying to tailor programs to military veterans. One of the things that came as a shock to them is that many veterans used their GI Bill money to cover necessities like rent and utilities (usually in addition to working). Since many were non-traditional, moving home during an off-semester wasn't an option, so they had to be enrolled full-time, year around (including summer semesters). Since the GI Bill only covered 36 months of school and the course offerings were limited in many semesters, it caused many veterans to burn through their benefits before finishing a degree. The goal was to develop a curriculum that would allow veterans to finish a degree attending year-around, but I don't think anything ever came of it. I head (but don't know) that things are better under the current GI Bill iteration.
I am not a fan of categorical statements; doubly so if those can be easily disproved. There are benefits to joining military beyond 'perk' you described.
That said, I would like you to consider existence of two populations that refute your statement:
- surge of recruits immediately following 9/11
- military families
If you say nobody, you may want to consider qualifying that statement somewhat.
Firstly, I wasn't making that claim. Secondly, that claim is easily falsifiable. The majority of the American military actual comes from middle-class households.
"Most members of the military come from middle-class neighborhoods. The middle three quintiles for household income were overrepresented among enlisted recruits"[1]
When you look at the educational attainment of those recruits, it erodes your claim. Just talk to some of them and you'll see there's virtually as many reasons for joining as there are recruits. The idea that there is one path for the college-bound (e.g., attending straight out of high school) is probably a contributor to some of the problems we see in college.
