Reply #77: A conscript army is much cheaper than a volunteer army

[OldSoldier]

That's the only thing I can think of.

The volunteer army has a lot of Quality of Life initiatives that a conscript army wouldn't need. Example: troop billeting. Fort Bragg is in the process of building new barracks for all of its unaccompanied soldiers. They're nice. It's a mix of one-troop and two-troop rooms, each room has its own latrine, there are two cable-TV hookups and two telephone jacks in each...IIRC there's broadband Internet running through the whole building. They're paying $6 million to house one brigade.

A conscript army can be housed in open-bay barracks because you don't have to worry about whether they'll reenlist. As Skeletor once said, draftees don't add long-term value to the Army. Just throw up a 40 x 60 steel building with some windows in the sides of it and you can house 250 soldiers using bunk beds and steel wall lockers.

Likewise, conscripts don't need recreational facilities, large post exchanges or parking for their cars. And you don't have to pay them very much. You also don't need family services because conscripts leave their families at home.