Reply #12: a worldwide question [View All]

[lancemurdoch]

This is a question the left has struggled with worldwide. You'd think the answer would be they are against the draft, but many on the left want to see all Americans, rich and poor, affected by the draft.

I agree with you that the rich will always find loopholes, they've been finding them since the Civil War ($300 to get out of it). If all loopholes were closed they'd just send their eligible sons to Europe or whatnot if they saw a war possibly coming.

Of course, you could never force say the wealthiest 1% of Americans into a war. This is obvious. I think the question is how high can you keep the threshold. I mean, during Vietnam all you had to be able to do is afford college. If you can ensure that everyone below say 5% had to go, that's still a very powerful constiuency that will be drafted.

I don't think the answer is obvious either way.