Our Youth Enslaved
Davis, Jefferson
by Jefferson Davis Over the past twenty years, many persons within the United States have increasingly voiced criticism of our unfair, authoritarian system of conscription. This opposition...
...Further, eighty per cent of the "military" jobs now filled by two year conscripts might go to civilians...
...In keeping with J. F. K.'s "Ask not...
...With a guaranteed wage of no less than $90 per month, a private can hardly support a family...
...1.) elaborates on this oft neglected cost by pointing out that those with civilian skills are impressed into service at a considerable cost to themselves (in terms of loss of buying power) as well as depriving the country of their productivity — estimated in Congressional testimony as greater than $1 billion...
...Due to related cost considerations, many businesses promote further social inequities by hiring no one under twenty-six years of ageThe indictment against the draft is staggering, yet there remain those who oppose a volunteer army because of the supposed inherent dangers of a professional military...
...When one multiplies this process by the 300,000 men trained each year, he will have calculated the staggering burden of a damaging cost factor...
...This assumption has little basis in fact, and there is no assurance that — Continued on Page 12 8...
...Milton Friedman (see: The Alternative, Vol...
...Suffering this "Seven Days In May syndrome," many liberals fear the elitism supposedly spawned by a professional army...
...An extreme example, Cassius Clay's income tax would provide enough funds to equip and train an entire military company...
...1, No...
...Though opposed by such respected and diverse spokesmen as William Buckley, James Farmer, John Galbraith, and Hanson Baldwin, only since the Gulf of Tonkin and the surfacing of the "Hell no we won't go" crowd has the draft suffered concentrated bombardment...
...The chicken hawks notwithstanding, the majority of Americans do serve their country when called, despite however distasteful is this forced labor...
...In its stead they propose establishing a volunteer army...
...Few persons are aware of the costs of the draft which filter down to the entire nation — not merely to the Department of Defense...
...Finally, on a pure evaluation of costs to the military, the General Accounting Office estimated in 1962 that 35,000 soldiers were misassigned — the number has increased drastically in the past six years...
...The loss in taxes alone from the thus bypassed civilian productivity is staggering...
...If removing a citizen's free choice were not odious enough, the draft is also an economic disaster...
...evhortation, many pacifists favor extending conscription to every American, and then somewhat gratuitously allowing them the "choice" of military duty or service in such programs as VISTA...
...In fact, it has been estimated that under a volunteer system the government could save $2.4 billion in training alone — and this figure does not even include the many hidden savings reaped by such a changeover...
...This aspect of conscription is often tragic to those immediately involved as well as damaging to society...
...Additional savings accrue when one considers that the Selective Service System operates more than 4000 draft boards throughout the country, all of which would disappear under a volunteer system...
...This opposition constitutes not merely the peculiar thoughts of splinter elements within American politics, but tends to represent an expanding spectrum left to right...
...From the time the draftee enters service till his discharge two years later, the government wastes thousands of dollars on him in turnover alone...
...Business suffers grievously from this unnecessary manpower drain as witnesses a 1966 report that thirty-five per cent of America's businesses faced employment shortages directly attributable to the draft...
...Whereas many of this last named group — often appearing as ambulatory anti-war posters — use the draft issue as a stage for their esoteric pacifist neuroses, the draft's more prudent critics contend the draft is inequitable, costly to America's economy, socially unhealthy, and terribly inefficient...
...Yet this exacerbates what Ronald Reagan deems one of the draft's greatest faults — its total inconsistency with the principles of a free society- The fact is, it furthers the corporate state concept rather than providing a reduction thereof...
Vol. 2 • September 1968 • No. 1
