You definitely don't understand. Put on a uniform, live the life, walk so many miles that you have holes in your boots, share in the camaraderie which can only be found when it is life & death for you and the troops next to you.
The benefits are amazingly paltry; the "1%" is still just that, even within the military -- a General Officer is often in charge of several thousand, or tens of thousands of troops. Anyone short of those ranks is not making large amounts of money.
If you had given 20 years to a company, with semi-regular promotions and career progression, learning new skills, etc., you'd expect to be pretty well compensated by the end of those 2 decades. You might even be a shareholder or executive by that time in the corporate sector, or perhaps you'd start your own business.
Odds are, however, that you would NOT be putting your life on the line on a regular basis. You'd not likely start out making ~$9-10k a year, unless you were an unskilled laborer such as grocery bagger or shelf stocker, etc. Considering the average service member is 19 years old and has a single 4-year contract, I can say that money is not the only driving factor, as you would lead us to believe. By the time that 4 years is up, an enlisted troop might be making $20k/year...still under the poverty level in many parts of the US. They would have gone through almost the same amount of schooling as a 2 or 4 year college, but lack the degree which might command a higher salary. And what civilian career field is analogous to soldiering? The closest might be police or security guard. That means that a service member returning to the civilian world would be at a major disadvantage if not for the benefits they earned with their blood, sweat and tears -- and even their money (the Montgomery and Post-9/11 GI Bills have a buy-in, in case you didn't already know).
Now, no matter what alignment a government may take, I can guarantee you that they're going to keep their troops fed, sheltered, and [relatively] content if they want to have an effective military. Conscription may be less expensive than a volunteer military, but the quality of troops will also be lesser.
And if war weren't profitable, then mankind would not have an extensive history of waging it...would they? Someone always profits in a war. Perhaps not during or immediately after, but in the end someone is making a huge amount of money, land, or other resources. That's the way of the world...you ought to be used to it by now.
