“The draft is inequitable because irrelevant considerations play so large a role in determining who serves. It is wasteful because deferment of students, fathers, and married men jams colleges, raises the birth rate, and fuels divorce court. It is inconsistent with a free society because it exacts compulsory service from some and limits the freedom of others to travel abroad, emigrate, or even to talk and act freely. So long as compulsion is retained, these defects are inevitable.”

Source: An Economist's Protest: Columns in Political Economy (1966), p. 189 (1975 edition)

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Milton Friedman158

American economist, statistician, and writer 1912–2006

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