From: utzoo!decvax!yale-com!leichter
Newsgroups: net.followup
Title: The Draft and Involuntary Service
Article-I.D.: yale-com.232
Posted: Fri Nov  5 14:22:36 1982
Received: Sat Nov  6 06:38:46 1982
References: eagle.599

The "the draft is the same as slavery" arguments all miss an important point:
Support of the government is by "involuntary servitude" for ALL of us.  Do
you have an option about paying taxes?  For the averat
\\\average taxpayer, the first 5 months of so of the year are needed to earn
enough to pay all he owes; you could call THAT involuntary servitude if you
liked.

Let's be a bit historical - on a broarder scale than some previous submissions.
Communities originally had a simple way of getting needed work done - everyone
in the community was expected to devote labor to the community.  If you didn't
contribute, you got kicked out.  (The communes of the 60's were organized on
exactly the same principle.  They argued that this brought everyone together
in the community.)  As societies grew and also as the nature of work changed,
so that "general labor" was no longer good enough to get societies job done -
only specialists can run societies buses and schools and computers - a new
method evolved:  Rather than having people contribute labor, you have them
contribute the equivalent in dollars (taxes), which society then uses to buy
the specialized labor it needs.

Now, there are still some jobs - like being in the Army - that essentially
anyone can do; so it is PRACTICAL to ask people to submit labor rather than
its equivalent in cash.  It's also:

	Fairer:  The rich will avoid the army by contributing cash; the poor
		will have to contribute labor.

	Often the only alternative:  Suppose not enough people are willing to
		take the job of fighting that society agrees must be done?

						-- Jerry
					decvax!yale-comix!leichter
						leichter@yale