Fri Sep 21, 2018, 12:56 AM
flotsam (3,268 posts)
A humble suggestion...
Most people agree that an income tax indexed to income level is fair. How about if we went to an indexed military draft? Suppose the entire military was draftees and every draftee passed thru basic with the best being offered military academies or officer candidate schools. By indexing the draft itself to family income levels it would be expected that both the quality of those drafted and the involvement of influential families would rise and that as a result deployment of troops would be much more fully debated. The quality of the military AND the level of civilian involvement in military oversight would be improved. And when rich kids got killed it just might matter a bit more...
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 9 replies |
Author |
Time |
Post |
 A humble suggestion... (Original post) |
flotsam |
Sep 2018 |
OP |
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dchill |
Sep 2018 |
#1 |
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jmowreader |
Sep 2018 |
#2 |
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dlk |
Sep 2018 |
#3 |
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jmowreader |
Sep 2018 |
#6 |
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leftstreet |
Sep 2018 |
#4 |
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scarletlib |
Sep 2018 |
#7 |
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Raine |
Sep 2018 |
#5 |
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Hoyt |
Sep 2018 |
#8 |
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HAB911 |
Sep 2018 |
#9 |
Response to flotsam (Original post)
Fri Sep 21, 2018, 02:01 AM
jmowreader (48,972 posts)
2. As a former NCO, I don't support this
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We have a hard enough time with some of the people who asked to be there and went through all the rigamarole of security investigation, basic training, language training and job training. Forcing people who didn't want to be in the Army to be in it anyway would be a disaster.
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Response to dlk (Reply #3)
Fri Sep 21, 2018, 05:58 AM
jmowreader (48,972 posts)
6. There were high levels of desertion, lots of disciplinary problems...
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heavy drinking, high levels of drug use...everything you do NOT want your army to be. And that's without the Trumps, Bushes and Quayles in the ranks.
Our army has not conscripted anyone since the end of the Vietnam Conflict...and unless our own soil gets invaded by some of our president's friends, there never should be one again.
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Response to flotsam (Original post)
Fri Sep 21, 2018, 07:13 AM
Hoyt (54,770 posts)
8. The fact is, the military is over-rated in this country. We spend way too much so we can influence
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and get our way in the world. I guess it is good for us, but not sure it's good for the world. Nor, is the military under our current leadership in the best interest of the world.
With that said, I think the active military is a pretty small number -- less than 1.5 million. But, our military is augmented by millions of people in the armaments and security business, and 900,000 or so in the reserves.
I do agree with the idea that involvement of "influential" families might help.
I don't think we need as many soldiers to invade countries and slog it out in the streets, jungles, deserts, nowadays.
And you are right. I bet we'd still be fire bombing innocent peasants in Vietnam had there not been a draft and people said "screw this war." On the other hand, I don't think the government should be making people into killers.
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dchill (34,945 posts) 
