David Franke on the Draft

feasibility—the Friedman-Chapman-Oi trio answer that the costs of conversion to a voluntary system would probably be an additional $3 billion to $8 billion a year. But, they add, this is increased budgetary cost. If we take into account the real costs of conscription—including the “tax in kind” levied on each conscript, or the difference between what he could earn in the civilian economy and what he gets in the army—it may well be that the voluntary system would bring a decrease in real costs to the economy.

To the fears that a voluntary army would be racially unbalanced, Friedman documents the statistical impossibility of a “Negro army,” and asks: why, under any circumstances, should we deny a Negro the opportunity to better his position through a career in the military?

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David Franke

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feasibility—the Friedman-Chapman-Oi trio answer that the costs of conversion to a voluntary system would probably be an additional $3 billion to $8 billion a year. But, they add, this is increased budgetary cost. If we take into account the real costs of conscription—including the “tax in kind” levied on each conscript, or the difference between what he could earn in the civilian economy and what he gets in the army—it may well be that the voluntary system would bring a decrease in real costs to the economy.

To the fears that a voluntary army would be racially unbalanced, Friedman documents the statistical impossibility of a “Negro army,” and asks: why, under any circumstances, should we deny a Negro the opportunity to better his position through a career in the military?