Alright folks, AAFES is a great deal, AAFES is trying to help you, AAFES supports your benefits. Yea, yea, yea, I have heard it all before. Can you spell TAX? Have you heard of a TAX? Do you know what a TAX is?
AAFES is nothing more than a tax and spend system that has millions fooled into thinking they are recieving a good deal. The mandate for AAFES is to provide goods and services to the military member while at the same time supporting services and programs that the government no longer provides to you via the government coffer (TAXES).
That means AAFES has become one big tax collection agency to reallocate the money they take in profit from you in order to fund services and programs previously provided at government expense from the general revenue. But with AAFES all that is over.
Now instead of the american puplic providing service members benefits from the tax revenue, AAFES taxes the service member directly to pay for all the things you receive via the Non-Appropriate Funds system (NAF). Now it doesn't take a genious to realize when you reduce the nember of people the tax burden lays on for these services from the 300 million americans who used to pay the bill to a couple of million service members the service members are going to get screwed! And make no mistake friends it is all about money.
For instance, did you know that the gas you buy on base is provided to AAFES without tax? Off base gas is taxed from 40 to 60 cents on the gallon, and then most service stations add a little on top of that to make a profit. But not AAFES, they benefit from the fact that government does not tax the gas but they pocket the entire profit (since there profits are a hidden TAX on you) and run all YOUR money into a "benefit" like the BX or Class Six store so they can make even more money off you. And you are just thrilled that you can go to the gym for free!
Give me a break, at 50 cents a gallon profit for every gallon pumped I could provide a gym for every service member at their own home! You are paying five to six dollars pure profit to AAFES for every 10 gallons you pump. And then they are profiting from every thing you buy at the BX and BXtra and smaller stores which convieniently charge you a premium for the service. The small store is a convienience store so the AAFES system justifies socking it to you there. They say, well, "We can build a better gym!"
Give me a break! A benefit you pay for is not a benefit, it is a product, and if you are paying for the product you ought to have some choice in the matter. I would like to be able to say, I am willing to fund the "Gym" at 25 cents a gallon, but 50 or 60 cents is just robbery! Would you allow a gas station in town to rip you off and profit with 50 cents a gallon? If I could save 30 bucks a week I could buy my own work out equipment, I don't need my money taken by AAFES to buy what I can buy myself. Please, don't pee down my back and tell me it's raining.
AAFES makes Generals look good when it turns a profit and shows all the "benefits" that it provides the service member. But this is a tax a spend system that is out of control. And it is to the point now that the pressure is really on. AAFES is socking it to the service member to provide ever better reports and make ever more money to fund the stuff that makes the leaders look good in reports. You get screwed in the process.
Ask yourself a simple question. Could you use an exta 150 dollars a month to do with as you please? If the answer is yes, then tell me, what "benefits" is AAFES giving you that is worth that much? The average Soldier, Sailor, Airmen and Marine is paying that much or more for his Gym privilages and then he has to pay for the use of the marina, the golf course and the pool etc. That big number in hundreds of thousands of dollars posted on the banner in the BX/PX that they like to brag about, used to be your money! It was you money before they took it.
Now let me help you see how bad this system is. If you buy a luxury car you pay a special tax, a penalty tax for buying a luxury car, after all the government says, you can afford it so they sock it to you. If you are a poor out of work lazy good for nothing that likes to see the rich guy get socked, stop reading you are an idiot. But if you work for a living you know that any luxury tax is a tax on the hard working. Why should he pay more just because he is smart enough and works hard enough to earn enough to buy a luxury car. He should be taxed at the same rate as any one else.
AAFES is like the loser who thought up the luxury tax. AAFES is a system dreamed up by someone to make the regular hard working GI Joe pay not "more" but "all" the expense of Moral, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) costs for the US military. That is why you are peing charged for soap and why they push the high profit things like alcohal and cigarettes in the AAFES stores. Money. If they were not funding the things the government used to pay for you would see cheaper prices.
But you, the american GI, you are not complaining, no you are celebrating your good fortune because you have no idea how the system is rigged to loot your wallet to pay for things the Government is responsible for. Your physical fitness is a personal benefit to you, but it is a government requirement, why are you paying for the gym from your family income? Give me a break!
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