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Milton Friedman on The draft and the volunteer army

The draft is inequitable because irrelevant considerations play so large a role in determining who serves. It is wasteful because deferment of students, fathers and married men jams colleges, raises the birth rate and fuels divorce courts. It is inconsistent with a free society because it exacts compulsory service from some and limits the freedom of others to travel abroad, emigrate or even to talk and act freely. So long as compulsion is retained, these defects are inevitable.
A Volunteer Army
Column, 1966, Newsweek (December 19, 1966); reprinted in the Congressional Record, Senate, January 22, 1969, p. 1438, under the heading “From Newsweek magazine, Dec. 19, 1966”. Later collected in An Economist’s Protest (1972)., Congressional Record, January 22, 1969, p. 1438
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  1. No. However appealing at first sight, universal national service is a monstrosity utterly inconsistent with a free society. It should be shunned like the plague it is.
    Universal National Service
    Column, 1979, Newsweek (1979); reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, May 15, 1979, p. 11349, introduced by Representative Ron Paul of Texas, who says Friedman “recently” made these arguments “in Newsweek.” The reprint gives no issue date and omits part of the opening paragraph, Congressional Record, May 15, 1979, p. 11349
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  2. It is immediately clear that if we were to take up each case separately, a majority would almost surely vote to deny free speech in most cases and perhaps even in every case. ( … ) Exactly the same considerations apply in the monetary area. If each case is considered on its merits, the wrong decision is likely to be made in a large fraction of cases because the decisionmakers are examining only a limited area and are not taking into account the cumulative consequences of the policy as a whole.
    Should There Be an Independent Monetary Authority?
    Journal article, 1962, In Search of a Monetary Constitution, ed. Leland B. Yeager (Harvard University Press, 1962), pp. 219–243; reprinted in the House Banking and Currency Committee’s 1968 Compendium on Monetary Policy Guidelines and Federal Reserve Structure, pp. 205–214, p. 213 of the 1968 House reprint
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  3. I gave a talk at the Catholic University of Chile under the title "The Fragility of Freedom." The essence of the talk was that freedom was a very fragile thing and that what destroyed it more than anything else was central control; that in order to maintain freedom, you had to have free markets, and that free markets would work best if you had political freedom. So it was essentially an anti-totalitarian talk.
    Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman interview
    Interview, 2000, PBS, “On His Role in Chile Under Pinochet,” interview conducted October 1, 2000
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