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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: unclewest who wrote (42875)	5/8/2004 7:47:10 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793717

Uncle, in a free society, where market prices, free enterprise, voluntary exchange of value, and self-determination are the foundations of the society, it is Alice in Wonderland stuff to press-gang people like an olde feudal society. < I believe that the reason we haven't bulked up for war is because we know we can't do that without the draft.> A draft, conscription, kidnapping, press-gang, slavery are the antithesis of the much heralded "freedom" which is purportedly being defended. You are suggesting freedom must be destroyed to save it. That's like "better dead than Red" and "destroying a village to save it". I know this is a very weird idea for people in the USA, but there's a thing in modern economics called supply and demand. What it means is that if there's a shortage of something, the price of it rises. If people pay the higher prices, then the supply increases. It's about opportunity cost. If somebody accepts a job in the military, it means they can't accept a job in some other sphere. So, the price they'll accept to join the military is at least the price that they can get elsewhere, unless there are countervailing benefits such as joining the navy to see the world, or at least the sea, or to get away from home, or something. So, if you are short of people joining up to fight the Crusades, try raising the price paid and see if that doesn't get more people interested in helping. I think that at some price, the ranks will be filled to over-flowing. There's no reason that people should join at some low price or be forced to join if they don't accept the low price. Raise the price. There's no reason why military employees should work for less money than other people in the economy receive. If the electorate is too cheapskate to pay the going rate, they don't deserve to be defended. Military people should be highly talented and highly paid, not low ability people who are trying to avoid minimum wage jobs. You pay peanuts and guess what you get? Yes, photos of USA troops in action in Iraqi prisons. If the price goes up when conflict is on, too bad. The price of freedom isn't cheap. People risking their lives and doing a great job deserve high pay rates. They should be well-insured so widows don't have to worry about income. No draft. No slavery. No conscription. No press-gang. No kidnapping. That's how Saddam, Stalin and their ilk run the show. Mqurice