Quote Originally Posted by Fuchs
Conscription is more expensive (monetary costs + human costs) than a volunteer army and thus suboptimal from the national point of view (,too).
This is simply not true for the United States. First, of the top twenty countries by active-duty end-strength, 13 exceed the United States in per 1,000 capita. These countries are North Korea, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Vietnam, Myanmar, France, Syria, Italy, Taiwan, and Colombia. None of them surpass the United States in GDP or military expenditures per capita. Of those 13 countries, 11 have conscription (North Korea, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Vietnam, Myanmar, Syria, Taiwan, Colombia). Now, the objection here would be that the US spends more per capita (even over conscript forces) because of its technological advancements. This argument also implies that these technologies are cost effective and produce a measurable increase in US military effectiveness. But this is not true either. This article and this article lay out how defense spending is not efficient at all. Moreover, this is made worse by the inefficiencies of the US national security political economy that is leading to a decline in military readiness despite increased spending. And lastly, we can throw in the three to eight trillion dollar bill for the GWoT. We can also look at the mixed US track record in favorably and definitively terminating conflicts since 1973. So, not only is US spending actually more inefficient than existing conscript forces, the perceived increase in combat power gained by technology has not improved US military effectiveness or American security by any substantial amount.

In contrast, we can examine US economic and military performance when the draft was in place from 1940 - 1973. I pointed out earlier that the mass mobilization and expanded benefits allowed for a full third of the US population during that time access to economic benefits. And the use of those benefits had a direct, measurable, and substantial impact on 'general welfare' of the US, including education, technological advancement, infrastructure, job growth, tax revenues, and civil rights.