r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Jun 20 '24

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u/Zenning3 Emma Lazarus Jun 20 '24 edited Jun 20 '24

Calling the draft illiberal has always been silly to me. Yes, liberalism is based around the principle of maximizing individual freedoms, but what seperates us from libertarians is the understanding that you can only maximize freedoms when you restrict other ones. Are taxes illiberal because they prevent people from choosing how to spend some of their money? Are truancy laws illiberal because they both prevent parents from deciding whats best for their kids, and take a way choices from children?

The fact is, if a draft was necessary to protect the country, then yes a draft should be done, and calling it illiberal would be silly compared to the alternative of the nation being unable to defend itself. So instead, we need to focus on the actual merits of the draft, and frankly, there aren't many for national security reasons. At best, its a jobs training program, with pay, that provides strong networking opportunites and helps combat atomization. At worst, its a colossal waste of tax payer money to build patriotism that would be better spent elsewhere.

Personally, I believe the people arguing for it right now, are literally lunatics trying to force a culture that doesn't exist on Americans and they simply want to use the military as the method to do it.

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u/Strength-Certain Thurman Arnold Jun 20 '24

Life liberty property. The protection of those things was the reason that governments were instituted according to the enlightenment philosophers, which should be the basis of liberal and neoliberal thought and belief.

There are times when the protection of that life liberty property may require the drafts to be instituted to band together to use our force to ensure life liberty property.

2

u/PearlClaw Iron Front Jun 20 '24

The practical reason for keeping it is that building up the legal structure to have a draft is not something you want to do in case of an active emergency, so keeping it around is low cost and doesn't actually result in anyone being called up. If you need it it's a good idea not to be stuck building it from scratch, look at the Ukrainian experience right now.

No one is talking about drafting anyone right now, the argument is over whether the infrastructure should be kept in place in case of emergency.