Ok - let's compare conscription to having the government hire young people to care for old people. There is no doubt, that the latter creates economic activity - so, why doesn't conscription?
If you pay people to dig holes and pay other people to fill them in, it "creates economic activity". That doesn't mean its a good idea, even narrowly in economic terms. Turning briefly to points outside of economics, conscription is forced labor and so an injustice, a best a necessary evil. Returning to the point of the discussion, conscription in economic terms is using force to get resources for below the market cost, thus distorting the allocation of those resources. It also pulls people from productive work elsewhere, for work that is largely not productive. To the extent it deters a war, or wins a war that you had no good way to avoid, it helps avoid a greater loss, so it is useful, but that's because of the military or diplomatic results of having a sufficiently sized military force, not because of any direct effect of conscription. If there was no actual threat, not just no currently visible threat, but no hidden or long term threat, than having a military would be a net negative. It would produce gross benefits. Specific people would benefit from military related jobs or contracts. The military, as a disciplined, trained, large, organized, and equipped group of people could be used for disaster relief, or other useful purposes. But the cost would be higher than the benefit, esp. if your filling the slots in the military by using conscription (and so imposing a cost on the unwilling soldiers, expanding the intrusiveness of government to support the conscription process, and possibly pulling people in to the military regardless of their non-military opportunities).
What about hairdressers or games? How much value persists from WW2 from game playing, or haircuts? Absolutely none. By your definition, the entire computer game industry must be an economic non-activity ;-)
Not my definition.
Haircuts and games meet real demand. People want them and are willing to pay for them without being forced to do so. That's value. |
