A certain number will stay "loyal" to the military establishment simply to keep their families fed and housed by it.
Now, I was utilizing a play on words to be dramatic, but don't you think the army will be the first ones (after Congress) to get paid?
It depends by what you mean by "paid" - The scenario we are looking at is the complete destruction of the good faith and credit of the United States. Because the good faith and credit of the UNited States is the ONLY thing backing our currency, that means the end of that currency. Like Europe, the United States CANNOT MAKE GOOD ON ITS DEBTS. Like Europe, a partial default is now inevitable and inescapable. The US has no long term options other than austerity and outright default by giving our debtors a haircut, or default via money printing. Thats it.
Under Austerity & haircut interest rates MUST rise, causing further economic slowdown and reduced tax revenues, and only a small force of can be kept. Sure that force is paid first, but it utility for population domination is severely reduced.
If the money is printed, hyper inflation will eventually result. The soldiers are "paid" in money worth more as toilet paper. Even finding food and supplies for them will be near impossible unless those supplies are taken by force from the American people and useless bits of paper are crammed into their hands at gun point. Such confiscation will be unconstitutional and illegal and hence the questionof how many soldiers obey the orders to do it.
In WWI we were still on the gold standard. The value of our money was never in question. Now there may be no gold at all in Ft Knox, and what is there may well be owned by others. Even if its all there and made available , each oz would be worth over $50K if dollars were made exchangeable for it given the CURRENT money supply.
Much of our troubles creating and keeping an Army during the revolutionary war were due to the lack of funds with which to pay them.
