When soldiers are drafted, the monetary cost remains the same as when they are paid enough to convince them to volunteer, but the cost is hidden. For example, suppose you have someone who is making $50,000 in his private job. In order to convince him to voluntarily enlist, you must pay him at least $50,000 as a soldier. So there is an obvious, explicit monetary cost of $50,000 to convince him to volunteer. If you draft him, you don't have to pay him any money, so it appears like you're saving the expense. But in reality, the same expense is incurred, because the economy is losing a job which produced $50,000 for society. This is an opportunity cost; even if you don't pay him, society is still losing the value of his productivity, which is equal to how much you would have paid him. (Again, we are ignoring psychological costs for now.) So either way, the same cost of $50,000 is incurred whether you draft someone or pay him enough to convince him to voluntarily enlist. But if you draft him, that cost is hidden and unseen.
Ok, so what you're advocating is that only poor people, or people who want to go into underpaid professions should go to the army, while rich people with good educations should not?
Why don't we also institute a payment system where rich parents can pay into the system (hey, more govt revenue!) to have their kids not be drafted!
Only the poor should die for their country.
Yep, that seems really fair to me.
