Milton Friedman on The draft and the volunteer army
In the medical area, the problem is of the military’s own making. It results from their insistence that uniformed personnel provide medical services to both enlisted personnel and their families wherever they are stationed.
Context. From a 1979 Newsweek column answering a new campaign to restore the draft, six years after conscription ended, written as a former member of the Gates Commission on an all-volunteer armed force. He goes on to cite the Gates report’s recommendation that service families use civilian medical facilities, with medical insurance as a fringe benefit.
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Milton Friedman, “Don’t Draft GI Joe” (Newsweek, April 16, 1979; reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, April 24, 1979, p. 8489, introduced by Representative Ron Paul of Texas under the header “[From the Newsweek magazine, Apr. 16, 1979]”, 1979), Congressional Record, April 24, 1979, p. 8489. https://miltonfriedman.org/quotes/military-medical-problem-of-own-making-1979
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He also said
The implicit tax in kind is not a light one. If it were proposed that we impose a special income tax of 50 per cent on enlisted men in the armed services, there would be cries of outrage. Yet that is what we are now doing in concealed form. Abolishing conscription would have the great merit of imposing those taxes on the rest of us, where they belong, not on the young men in uniform.
Context. From a May 1967 New York Times Magazine article, written as Congress weighed renewing the draft, arguing that the United States should end conscription and man its armed forces with volunteers. Just before, he explains the “tax in kind”: the real cost of conscripting a man who would not serve on present terms is what it would take to attract him, and the gap between that and his military pay is a tax he pays in service.
The Case for Abolishing the Draft—and Substituting for It an All-Volunteer ArmyColumn, 1967, The New York Times Magazine, May 14, 1967; reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Senate, May 15, 1967, pp. 12546 to 12548, inserted by Senator Gaylord Nelson., Congressional Record, May 15, 1967, p. 12547Checked against the sourceRead the originalThe fact is that the volunteer force is working extremely well. The average score of recruits on mental-aptitude tests is far higher today than it was under the draft. Quality has risen and every service has been able to meet its over-all quotas. There are some difficult areas, particularly in the medical services and in the reserve forces.
Context. From a 1979 Newsweek column answering a new campaign to restore the draft, six years after conscription ended, written as a former member of the Gates Commission on an all-volunteer armed force. The column goes on to take up the medical services and the reserves, in passages quoted separately.
Don’t Draft GI JoeColumn, 1979, Newsweek, April 16, 1979; reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, April 24, 1979, p. 8489, introduced by Representative Ron Paul of Texas under the header “[From the Newsweek magazine, Apr. 16, 1979]”, Congressional Record, April 24, 1979, p. 8489Checked against the sourceRead the originalClearly, it is a good thing not a bad thing to offer better alternatives to the currently disadvantaged. The argument to the contrary rests on a political judgment: that a high ratio of Negroes in the armed services would exacerbate racial tensions at home and provide in the form of ex-soldiers a militarily trained group to foment violence. Perhaps there is something to this. My own inclination is to regard it as the reddest of red herrings. Our Government should discriminate neither in the civil nor in the military services. We must handle our domestic problems as best we can and not use them as an excuse for denying Negroes opportunities in the military service.
Context. From a May 1967 New York Times Magazine article, written as Congress weighed renewing the draft, arguing that the United States should end conscription and man its armed forces with volunteers. He is answering the objection that a volunteer force would be manned predominantly by Black Americans, because military pay and careers would be more attractive than the other jobs open to them. Just before, he notes that Black soldiers were a larger share of the men in combat in Vietnam than of the population, and that most of them were there by choice, having enlisted or re-enlisted.
The Case for Abolishing the Draft—and Substituting for It an All-Volunteer ArmyColumn, 1967, The New York Times Magazine, May 14, 1967; reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Senate, May 15, 1967, pp. 12546 to 12548, inserted by Senator Gaylord Nelson., Congressional Record, May 15, 1967, p. 12547Checked against the sourceRead the original
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