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Milton Friedman on The draft and the volunteer army

We need a strong military. We are endangered throughout the world by the decline in our military strength relative to that of Russia. But strength depends on spirit and not merely numbers. Our military will be far stronger if we recruit it by methods consistent with the basic values of a free society than if we resort to the methods of a totalitarian society.

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’s closing paragraph.

Don’t Draft GI Joe
Column, 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. 8489
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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/strength-depends-on-spirit-free-society-methods-1979

Quoted for commentary and research. Rights in the underlying work remain with its rights holder, so cite the work itself, not only this page.

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He also said

  1. There is a real danger, but it arises from a strong armed force not from the method of recruiting enlisted men. Napoleon and Franco both rose to power at the head of a conscript army. However we recruit, the essential need is to maintain close links between the officer corps and the body politic.

    Context. His answer to the first of two objections to a volunteer force: that a “professional” army endangers political freedom.

    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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  2. The society doesn’t have concerns. It has governments, it has laws, it has parliaments. Only people have concerns. People do certain things through government. And I’m not going to talk about society having values. Society doesn’t have values. People have values.

    Context. In the panel discussion, asked whether he holds that any concern with inequality of outcome is illegitimate. He asks, “Concerned with whom? By whom?”, and the questioner answers, “Concerned by the society.”

    Created Equal
    Television, 1980, PBS, vol. 5, at 33:42
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  3. The great danger to the consumer is monopoly—whether private or governmental. His most effective protection is free competition at home and free trade throughout the world. The consumer is protected from being exploited by one seller by the existence of another seller from whom he can buy and who is eager to sell to him. Alternative sources of supply protect the consumer far more effectively than all the Ralph Naders of the world.

    Context. From Free to Choose (1980), written with Rose D. Friedman: the last paragraph before the conclusion of the chapter “Who Protects the Consumer?”, on consumer-protection regulation. Ralph Nader was the best-known consumer advocate of the time.

    Free to Choose
    Book, 1980, Ch. 7 “Who Protects the Consumer?”, p. 226
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