It never ceases to amaze me that whenever issues of military pay come up, you hear the usual claims that paying more is just another form of conscription, an “economic draft.” That especially insipid idea has raised its daft head again at antiwar.com. By the logic employed there, any form of inducement is a “draft.” I can get you to mow my lawn by threatening to imprison you if you don’t mow the lawn or by offering you $30 if you do. The former would be a “conventional draft” and the latter would be an “economic draft.” And if you were to agree to mow my lawn in exchange for me washing your car, why, we’d both be “drafting” each other, just like when the Selective Service System used to have people thrown into prison for refusing their nation’s “call to service.”
