Whoa, did not know how bad the ball was. All i can think of ‘Do my patriotic duties’ and attend the ball, but im too lazy for that heh. ‘The Box’ sounds like solitary confinement to me. No cell phones for 8-12 hour shifts must blow! As for their housing.. I knew a US Marine a a few years ago, he had a pretty sweet pad on the Waterfront. The price for it was about… 20-30k RMB per month! So yea, the US gov’t paid for his sweet pad.. And i mean sweep/pimpin pad!
From what I can tell they are highly paid people who mostly do nothing. The US Consulate is open what, like 5 hours a week? And even during those hours even simple things are a major headache.
I would be surprised but I’m from Washington DC and know all about the appalling inefficiency of people who are coasting on the federal government payroll. No accountability, especially within the military, where hundreds of billions of dollars goes “unaccounted for” on a regular basis. I don’t consider it patriotism to celebrate that, nor all the impoverished countries we’ve started wars with. Decimating peasants with drones and apache helicopters is not honor.
Before I came to China I worked for an investment group that got many $1 billion+ government security contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. I wish I didn’t know how corrupt it all is.