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It would introduce a very serious social problem that has otherwise (mostly) been eliminated: the use of force to make people do work. That is: slavery. The US

It would introduce a very serious social problem that has otherwise (mostly) been eliminated: the use of force to make people do work. That is: slavery. The USA has always had a culture and set of laws (back to the founding documents) that prioritizes individual volition. Mandatory (ie, enforced with violence) military (or civil) service would be a refutation of the very things the military is there to protect. We (the USA) are really not at war (despite the problems with the executive branches' increasing power to use military force without declaration of war). Mandatory military service is very wrong and immoral in that context.

badrabbit 8y ago
The military will be there no matter what. The US spends $700/bn a year on it. This is a question of who takes part in it. A lot of modern countries have mandatory service,look at it this way,you pay mandatory tax which is a result of your labor in order to support government. This is a tax except you pay directly by labor.
unethical_ban 8y ago
Equating compulsory military service with slavery as it has been experienced in this country is disingenuous. Getting paid vs. not paid, universal vs. race based, done by all vs. forced by one group onto another for the purposes of economic extortion and fundamental oppression... I do think that military service is a bad idea; but that some kind of civil national guard / social service like EMT, nursing, and service to the poor and elderly might go a long way to bringing the country closer.
- superkuh 8y ago
  Just to be clear. I'm equating compulsary service of any kind, military, civil, or whatever, with slavery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery#Forced_labour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery#Forced_labour
rayiner 8y ago
Slavery is a very specific thing, and narrower that coerced labor generally. Societies compel their members to do a wide variety of things for the social good. For example, forcing kids to go to school is not slavery. Nor is forcing kids to do community service as part of school, or sentencing an to do community service. Forcing children to do chores. Forcing people to give up 50% of the proceeds of their labor via taxes is not “half slavery.”
dkural 8y ago
I don't know where to start... First, it would be NOTHING like slavery as practiced in the United States. Slaves were property; traded like cattle, killed / lynched without justice, desecrated - left hanging on tress, burned in public. Second, The US did not "always" have such a culture - in fact the DRAFT i.e. forcing young men to join the military, was in use until the second half the 20th century (heard of Vietnam?). The very rights you speak of are defended via a military, globally, with the blood of draftees up until recently. Also, all laws are ultimately "enforced with threat of violence" - from speeding tickets to taxes. Also, the US "culture" of prioritizing individual volition did NOT extend to women or black people, until the suffrage movement, and the very historically recent civil rights era. US was basically a European colony that first removed the Native inhabitants with genocidal frenzy, and then enslaved millions of Africans, basically to make $; i.e. not this land of the free you speak of. More like we'll take your land if you're native, and your liberty if you're black, to make a living. Third, the US is most definitely at war in multiple countries. It's bombing ~7 of them actively, with thousands of them falling every year. "The U.S. military is officially fighting wars in seven countries, according to the White House’s latest war report. Known formally as the “Report on the Legal and Policy Frameworks Guiding the United States’ Military Force and Related National Security Operations,” the unclassified portion flags ops in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Niger — all under the banner of the same war authority granted in the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force to fight al-Qaeda-linked militants." Reference: https://www.defenseone.com/news/2018/03/the-d-brief-march-15-2018/146688/ https://www.defenseone.com/news/2018/03/the-d-brief-march-15...

badrabbit 8y ago

The military will be there no matter what. The US spends $700/bn a year on it. This is a question of who takes part in it. A lot of modern countries have mandatory service,look at it this way,you pay mandatory tax which is a result of your labor in order to support government. This is a tax except you pay directly by labor.

unethical_ban 8y ago

Equating compulsory military service with slavery as it has been experienced in this country is disingenuous. Getting paid vs. not paid, universal vs. race based, done by all vs. forced by one group onto another for the purposes of economic extortion and fundamental oppression... I do think that military service is a bad idea; but that some kind of civil national guard / social service like EMT, nursing, and service to the poor and elderly might go a long way to bringing the country closer.

superkuh 8y ago
Just to be clear. I'm equating compulsary service of any kind, military, civil, or whatever, with slavery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery#Forced_labour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery#Forced_labour

rayiner 8y ago

Slavery is a very specific thing, and narrower that coerced labor generally. Societies compel their members to do a wide variety of things for the social good. For example, forcing kids to go to school is not slavery. Nor is forcing kids to do community service as part of school, or sentencing an to do community service. Forcing children to do chores. Forcing people to give up 50% of the proceeds of their labor via taxes is not “half slavery.”

dkural 8y ago

I don't know where to start... First, it would be NOTHING like slavery as practiced in the United States. Slaves were property; traded like cattle, killed / lynched without justice, desecrated - left hanging on tress, burned in public. Second, The US did not "always" have such a culture - in fact the DRAFT i.e. forcing young men to join the military, was in use until the second half the 20th century (heard of Vietnam?). The very rights you speak of are defended via a military, globally, with the blood of draftees up until recently. Also, all laws are ultimately "enforced with threat of violence" - from speeding tickets to taxes. Also, the US "culture" of prioritizing individual volition did NOT extend to women or black people, until the suffrage movement, and the very historically recent civil rights era. US was basically a European colony that first removed the Native inhabitants with genocidal frenzy, and then enslaved millions of Africans, basically to make $; i.e. not this land of the free you speak of. More like we'll take your land if you're native, and your liberty if you're black, to make a living. Third, the US is most definitely at war in multiple countries. It's bombing ~7 of them actively, with thousands of them falling every year. "The U.S. military is officially fighting wars in seven countries, according to the White House’s latest war report. Known formally as the “Report on the Legal and Policy Frameworks Guiding the United States’ Military Force and Related National Security Operations,” the unclassified portion flags ops in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Niger — all under the banner of the same war authority granted in the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force to fight al-Qaeda-linked militants." Reference: https://www.defenseone.com/news/2018/03/the-d-brief-march-15-2018/146688/ https://www.defenseone.com/news/2018/03/the-d-brief-march-15...