A Return to the Military Draft

Since low-income individuals volunteer for the military Powell would have us believe that we have a “free society defended by the least free.” Certainly those with low incomes are less free than those with high incomes. However, does coercion of the young, who as a matter of fact are poorer than the old, make anyone more free?

Moreover, no one has to volunteer for a voluntary military. Indeed, those who are today joining the military are actually exercising their freedom to choose on the basis of market wages. We should not confuse defense of this country and the problem of poverty, as Powell seems to wish us to do.

Furthermore, if as he states, the voluntary military represents the hiring of substitutes for the wealthy and privileged then he must be asking for a military draft not imposed on the young, but on those older and more affluent citizens.

The argument that the draft is economical looks only at the budgeted cost of the military and not the true cost to society. To be sure, conscription would lower the budgeted cost. However, taking wage rates as an approximation of one’s contribution to output it follows that society’s output actually falls with a military draft since military wage rates are lower than private sector wage rates. As a result we are all worse off and this is, of course, the true cost of the draft. It is much more expensive to society than a voluntary military.

RICHARD A. BILAS

Tehachapi