I don't wholeheartedly agree (as I understand there is a good chunk of middle class already in the armed forces). But a draft wouldn't change that as many of the means of avoiding the draft (college etc.) are a direct reflection of economic standards.
The reason I brought up pay grades is that it would allow the military to be a transformative vehicle not just for American institutions but economic classes. Plus a higher pay grade might increase interest from others. I know I bowed out of joining the Georgia National Guard in 2000 when I realized that simply going to boot camp alone would cost me $5k out of pocket, and I didn't have the savings to pay those bills.
What would you think about an automatic 'war tax', levied any time Congress passed an act of war? It's not so much about revenue generation than it is ensuring the *other* 99% of the country joins in some form of sacrafice when we ask our armed services to do the same? We're past the point, barring long term wars of attrition or invasion, where we need to save scraps of metal or go on food rationing. But the necessity of a society to join in the sacrafice, perhaps through a tax, still seems a good option for me.
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Re: my initial <point> was the whole fraud for war thing...
Date: 2006-07-05 03:29 pm (UTC)The reason I brought up pay grades is that it would allow the military to be a transformative vehicle not just for American institutions but economic classes. Plus a higher pay grade might increase interest from others. I know I bowed out of joining the Georgia National Guard in 2000 when I realized that simply going to boot camp alone would cost me $5k out of pocket, and I didn't have the savings to pay those bills.
What would you think about an automatic 'war tax', levied any time Congress passed an act of war? It's not so much about revenue generation than it is ensuring the *other* 99% of the country joins in some form of sacrafice when we ask our armed services to do the same? We're past the point, barring long term wars of attrition or invasion, where we need to save scraps of metal or go on food rationing. But the necessity of a society to join in the sacrafice, perhaps through a tax, still seems a good option for me.
Tim C.