My brother-in-law is headed to Kuwait on Feb 12. He's 23 and he's been married to my sister a grand total of 6 months. Anyway, that's got me thinking about a few things. One, given that our army is overwhelmingly made up of people from economically disadvantaged areas of the country, primarily the south, would a draft be fairer, as it would more equally draw on all socio-economic strata?

Thoughts?

"More than 44 percent of U.S. military recruits come from rural areas, Pentagon figures show. In contrast, 14 percent come from major cities. Youths living in the most sparsely populated Zip codes are 22 percent more likely to join the Army, with an opposite trend in cities. Regionally, most enlistees come from the South (40 percent) and West (24 percent).


"Many of today's recruits are financially strapped, with nearly half coming from lower-middle-class to poor households, according to new Pentagon data based on Zip codes and census estimates of mean household income. Nearly two-thirds of Army recruits in 2004 came from counties in which median household income is below the U.S. median." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5110302528.html

Would a draft be more fair, regarding who goes? Only if college deferments were eliminated. College grants and student loans, as well as the educational preparation necessary for college enrollment and graduation, are being placed out of reach for the majority of working class and poor youth. Keep college deferments and the same pool of kids who are dying for the wealthy now will be dying for the wealthy in the future. Dick Cheney didn't serve then, and his kids won't go now. No matter what the mechanism, it will be tilted to favor the wealthy.

So, how about this? We quit killing everybody, and spend the money on health and education, instead. Then, instead of sending soldiers to third world countries with natural resources but no capital, we could send doctors and teachers. Hell, we could even make doctors and teachers accessible to Americans!

Good gawd can you imagine the possibilities???
The potential profit to be made from PEACE!
The potential profit from spreading growth and health to ALL corners of the planet!!!


Absolutely mind bogling!

Um, but where would all those good ole pharmacutical companies get the money to pay their ceo's $10 bazillion dollars a year, plus BONUSES???

Peace is too cheap. Can't work. NEVER!

Ok, ok, kidding aside. Man, that would be a great world to live in. (...drifts off into a daydream about living in a peacefilled planet....)

Cuba.

Lefty,

Think progressive.

If you provide a kid with a good college education,
he makes more money and is also able to pay more tax's.
The payback for providing a free chance at a degree is potentially huge!

Similarly,
you make a man healthy, give him a good job and a good standard of living,
he then becomes A CONSUMER!
If you can make a million dollars off a thousand consumers,
how much is possible if you have a million consumers?

I still say we had it better before the concept of ownership came along.

What he said. The draft certainly wasn't fair during the Vietnam War.

A draft can never be fair i nthe fact that is is conscription plain and simple. Its nothing more then forced paid labor and just about taking slaves to fight.

I agree with MM 100%.

Randomly picking people to go fight (well, randomly picking poor people) is far from fair. I think that if a nation declares war, the sons and daughters of that nations politicians are AUTOMATICALLY shipped to teh front lines. That'll make them think twice.

Well, the all volunteer army isn't fair either, because we still have the rich men sending the poor men to fight and die.

But those foolish poor boys CHOSE to be there. Its their own faults, in a way.

Yeah but - there are strong economic forces that make the military look damn good. Their benefits are stellar compared to most jobs in the South. I heard today they just jacked the signing bonus up to $80K! You know how that's going to sound to that sort of person?

When they're slaves of their own free will, aren't they called indentured servants?

80k is not enough for me to destory another persons community.

If you live for money, then you live for anything.

Or you're an American.

Sorry pinget, I don't agree here.

If 80k is enough for you to forget any morals or ethical limits you set for yourself (hell, if any amount of money is able to do this) than I don't feel sorry for you if you are used by politicans and blasted to bits in some foreign country.