Milton Friedman on The draft and the volunteer army
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.
Where this comes from
Checked against the sourceThe wording was checked against the work itself.
Cite this passage
Milton Friedman, “The Case for Abolishing the Draft—and Substituting for It an All-Volunteer Army” (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., 1967), Congressional Record, May 15, 1967, p. 12547. https://miltonfriedman.org/quotes/special-income-tax-50-per-cent-on-enlisted-men-1967
Quoted for commentary and research. Rights in the underlying work remain with its rights holder, so cite the work itself, not only this page.
Topics
He also said
Enforced service by a conscript is a tax imposed on him no less than the check you send to Internal Revenue is a tax imposed on you. The size of his tax is the difference between the sum of money for which he would have served voluntarily and the pay he actually receives. Currently, this tax amounts to about 50 per cent of the potential civilian income of draftees. So unfair a tax imposed on so small a minority would never be passed explicitly by Congress. It persists only because it is hidden.
Context. Friedman served on the President’s Commission on an All-Volunteer Armed Force (the Gates Commission), which unanimously recommended a plan to let conscription end on June 30, 1971, when the existing draft authority expired, keeping only a standby draft for emergencies.
The End of the Draft?Column, 1970, Newsweek (1970); reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, March 20, 1970, p. 8443, introduced by Representative William A. Steiger as one of “two recent articles on the volunteer army which were published in Newsweek.” The bracketed header “[From Newsweek, Mar. 23, 1970]” stands above the Stewart Alsop column printed first; this column carries no date of its own in the reprint, Congressional Record, March 20, 1970, p. 8443Checked against the sourceRead the originalWhatever the extra amount, we are now paying a larger sum in concealed form. Conscription is a tax in kind—forced labor exacted from the men who serve involuntarily. The amount of the tax is the difference between the sum for which they would voluntarily serve and the sum we now pay them—if Joe Namath were drafted, his tax might well run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Context. From his answer to the objection that a volunteer army would cost too much. The “extra amount” is the added military pay needed to attract volunteers, which he notes was estimated at $4 billion to $20 billion a year.
A Volunteer ArmyColumn, 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. 1438Checked 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
Think this quote is wrong, misattributed, or missing context? Report it and it gets fixed, not argued with.