Conscription in general

[Sweet Mercury]

Yeah, but are you going to get reanalysis from somebody who has totally hardened themselves to the possibility that their position might be utterly absurd?  I mean, I suppose you could try changing tacks, shifting to the other foot, as it were, to try to get around the irrationality... but I admit that I wouldn't know exactly how to do that.

Oh, but I'm not saying that you should just give up!  Nope, nope, nope, nope--none of us will get anywhere if we do that. 

Oh, I won't be giving up any time soon. This is as much about me venting frustration at people who mindlessly accept authority as it is about this particular abuse of authority.

There's little you can do about your correspondents' psychological problems.

Unfortunately. What we have to realize is that complete irrationality/submission is the default position of so many people, it makes progress difficult.

[error]

So has it always been. I just finished reading (an English translation of) Frederic Bastiat's The Law, and he draws attention to this phenomenon of "voter apathy." Not in so few words, but still.

[eques]

Yeah, but are you going to get reanalysis from somebody who has totally hardened themselves to the possibility that their position might be utterly absurd?  I mean, I suppose you could try changing tacks, shifting to the other foot, as it were, to try to get around the irrationality... but I admit that I wouldn't know exactly how to do that.

Oh, but I'm not saying that you should just give up!  Nope, nope, nope, nope--none of us will get anywhere if we do that. 

Oh, I won't be giving up any time soon. This is as much about me venting frustration at people who mindlessly accept authority as it is about this particular abuse of authority.

OK, venting is OK... this is "Endless Debate and Whining"...

[David]

The draft is one thing I will evade with very little hesitation.  I will never be responsible for killing innoscent persons.    

[Pat McCotter]

*puts on his jackboots with the shiny, shiny heels*  (I'd be eligible for conscription! )

One of the anti-draft arguments advanced regarding the end of the draft back, oh, in the 70s when they got rid of it went something like this: a volunteer army has a much higher morale and lower defection rates when compared to a conscripted/drafted army.  One senator or some such character railed against the man advancing the policy, to which the man replied that he would rather be defended by willing men rather than slaves.

Too bad I'm too lazy to go look it up. 

He just died - Milton Friedman.

http://www.davidrhenderson.com/articles/0199_thankyou.html

Of course, Meckling wasn't the only hero. Milton Friedman was very persuasive. One of Meckling's favorite stories, which his widow, Becky, recalled in a recent interview, was of an exchange between Mr. Friedman and General William Westmoreland, then commander of all U.S. troops in Vietnam. In his testimony before the commission, Mr. Westmoreland said he did not want to command an army of mercenaries. Mr. Friedman interrupted, "General, would you rather command an army of slaves?" Mr. Westmoreland replied, "I don't like to hear our patriotic draftees referred to as slaves." Mr. Friedman then retorted, "I don't like to hear our patriotic volunteers referred to as mercenaries. If they are mercenaries, then I, sir, am a mercenary professor, and you, sir, are a mercenary general; we are served by mercenary physicians, we use a mercenary lawyer, and we get our meat from a mercenary butcher."

[Lloyd Danforth]

The draft is one thing I will evade with very little hesitation.  I will never be responsible for killing innoscent persons.    

You can be drafted, never put in battle, but, you're still a slave.  Thats the part to concentrate on...........the slave part.

[David]

The draft is one thing I will evade with very little hesitation.  I will never be responsible for killing innoscent persons.    

You can be drafted, never put in battle, but, you're still a slave.  Thats the part to concentrate on...........the slave part.

Agreed. 

To error, The Law is an excellent easy read book.  It's available on the internet for free at bastiat.org.  I have a book copy, and have read it at least twice. 

[error]

Yep, I know, that's the one I read.

[anthonybpugh]

The Law is what converted me to libertarianism. I highly suggest reading Economic Sophisms.  It is brilliant. 

The best argument that I have seen was one made by Patton comparing it to a tax.  I definately do not agree with the argument but it was the best pro-conscription argument that I had seen.  Conscription is only a tax upon people paid for through labor instead of money.  In ancient times people would work to pay their taxes so it isn't that radical of a concept.  Of course if you accept it, it brings into question a lot of issue about taxation and slavery but of course I don't see much of a difference between taxation and slavery anyways.  One is just more direct than the other. 

[error]

How else do you earn the money to pay taxes, besides working, the very act which is being taxed?