Apocryphal or not, I think "economic draft" is exactly what's going on but with the addition of social detritus for military grunthood. By this I mean the judicial/prison system's draft of petty thieves -- join the military or go to jail. For a poor angry hopeless young person it's a chance to see the world and get out of the hood. Unfortunately the view will be from one end of a rifle. Add to this double-pronged draft the PR myth of heroism rather than the reality of coercion by subterfuge of court and capital, and you have an unstoppable production of fodder.
During the Vietnam war the Selective Service System openly referred to the "club of induction", i.e. the use of the draft to engineer society on a local level. Draft board members tended to be right wing businessmen, the same sort that rule the economic draft today. I believe the draft ended because of the antiwar, anti draft feeling that grew among the voters and more poignantly the increasing instances of fragging of officers by draftees. This crap won't end, I believe, until the vulnerable warrior age young persons resolve to kill only those people who give them weapons and order them to kill others. The Pentagon (and Obama) have already prepared to ward off this scenario by isolating the killing effects of weapons from the gunsels who push the pristine buttons from an air- conditioned cubicle someplace in Nevada. Dan Scanlan Sent from my iPhone On May 31, 2012, at 7:00 AM, Jim Devine <[email protected]> wrote: > This reminds me very little of the apocryphal neoclassical > macroeconomic concept, the MERU (rhymes with NAIRU), i.e., the > Military Equilibrium Rate of Unemployment. Without a draft, it is > difficult for the Pentagon to recruit grist for the military mill. So > all else constant, a certain positive unemployment rate -- the MERU -- > must be maintained in order to coordinate the Pentagon's recruitment > requirements with the voluntary supply of soldiers. If the military is > willing and able to pay soldiers more, the MERU can be lower, but > budget restrictions and the need for gold-plated toilet seats and > wrenches prevents this from going far. If the private-sector > alternatives to unemployment are worse (as currently), the MERU can > also be lower. This can also happen if military standards for their > recruits are low and the average quality of potential recruits is > high. Rising patriotic fervor also reduces the MERU, as does a > peaceful foreign policy. Don't count on this last one. > > The existence of a positive MERU substitutes for forced conscription. > It's often called the "economic draft." > > michael perelman wrote: >> In the last week, 3 of my best students told me that they were joining >> the military. One came for a letter of recommendation and another >> whom I knew when he was in high school only told me today when I asked >> about his plans. Another bright young guy from basketball is dropping >> out to join. Again, financial considerations are dominant. I assume >> they are the tip of the iceberg among students with whom I am close. >> They see no decent job prospects in the civilian sector. What is >> going on when our economy creates such a double waste: not providing >> decent opportunities and then drawing them into a killing machine. > > -- > Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own > way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
