AA in action (the draft)
Topics: AA
30 Jan 1991
From: ervan
AA supporters are upset that blacks are *over*-represented
in the military. They want the draft back to fix this 'problem'.
I find it all quite ironic. The argument is that blacks join the
military, not because they want to, but because they lack an operational
freedom to do anything else. So, to correct for this problem, the
proposed solution is to a use a draft to force more whites into the
military and therefore force blacks out. Not only would this hurt
the very blacks being helped under the current system by denying them
a job but it is quite hypocritical to try to fix the lack of operational
freedom of a small group of society (black males) by imposing something
that is tantamount to slavery, the draft, upon a large subset of the
population (males of draft age, at least).
The military is one of the truly equal oppurtunity employers around.
It gives people with some skill but lack of opportunity a chance to
learn at least discipline and self respect if not some skills as well.
Yes, I know it's not very good at this, but it is much better than
nothing. It also provides jobs for these people.
If my concern were building an effective military and I had
a choice between someone who would make $50,000/year and someone
who would make $15,000/year, I would want the $15,000/year person
because they would both be about equally good as soldiers (though
not officers presumably) and the higher income person could then work
and generate more tax money to fund the military. I.e., the volunteer
system is a good way to allocate our resources. I am reminded of the
political difficulties of the exception system and lottery system
used during the Vietnam war. It was an attempt (in part) to keep people
who could be more productive as workers than soldiers, as workers.
The volunteer army neatly solves this problem of allocation and it
avoids the political problem of fairness, though a few still disagree.
Futhermore, the volunteer system provides us with a good
estimate of the cost of war. We must pay people for the their sacrifice.
The more wars we fight, the more we must pay to get soldiers. That is
as it should be. The more just the war, the more willing people are
to fight (and the lower the cost), the more unjust the war, the less
willing people are to fight (and the higher the cost). That is
as it should be.
AA, in the form of the draft, suffers from the same problem
that any socialist proposal does:
1) It hurts the people it is trying to help (as well as everyone else).
2) It buries the real cost of the program by forcing people to do what
they don't want to instead of paying them enough to make it in
their interest.
3) In the interest of 'social justice', it tramples personal freedom.
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