Skip to main content

Draft should be the choice not for increasing military recruitment but for reducing it!

Military recruitment is going down in US. There are three ways of increasing the recruitment.

  1. Increase pay
  2. Implement conscription
  3. Hire mercenaries.
During Civil War, US adopted a combination strategy conscription and mercenaries. Andrew Carnegie who was drafted could hire a substitute mercenary and send him in his place. He paid the mercenary a few hundred dollars which was less than what he would spend in a year for his fancy cigars. Strange system but that was allowed during Civil War.

Even voluntary army has an element of coercion. Those who are economically poor and cannot get any job opportunity are "coerced" to join the military.


I like conscription. I would like to combine that with increasing pay, may be double it. Conscription forces the society to think carefully about what wars we should engage in and limits the wars to truly what is essential to defend the borders. This should reduce the size of the military, not increase it.
I was highly motivated to join the Indian army after my master's degree and went for a grueling recruitment. Had to jump and catch a rope from 30 feet height and slide down (no one died, but some had injuries). Army sent me the acceptance to join as an officer but my brother who first saw the letter deliberately tore of the letter and never told me. I thought I was not recruited. Later I came to US, did my PhD and joined a safe corporate job. To this day I regret the lost opportunity.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Biography of Sri Hiriannaiah

I read the following biography of Sri Hiriannaiah at http://rajchat.info/vasudeva_kutumbukam/7_two_exemplary_officerst.html. Sri Hiriannaiah also belonged to Bobburkamme sect and most probably our family is related to his family, exactly how I don't know but may learn in the future. What was interesting is the propensity of descendants of Sri Kalappa to pursue law and serve in justice profession. The entire biography is copied from the above source. " Sakleshpur Hirianniah (S. Hirianniah for short) was born on 24th of June 1877 in Sakleshpura which is a taluq headquarters town in Hassan district. The taluq is situated in the high mountainous area of the Western Ghats, The mountains are covered by tropical forests where grow teakwood, rosewood, sandalwood and other tropical trees, and there is very heavy rain during the monsoon months. The ground under the trees are covered by all sorts of plants and creepers an...
12 comments
Read more

My MOOC Progress

I finished my first MOOC course "Introduction to Mathematical Thinking" taught by Keith Devlin of Stanford, an outstanding professor. It was a tough course! I am almost half done with "Introduction to Genetics and Evolution" taught Mohammed Noor, another outstanding professor from Duke. I have already learned a great deal from this course. This is a tough course too. Believe it or not, I have signed up another 16 MOOCs! Within a month, three courses will be starting; Think Again: How to Reason and Argue , Introduction to Astronomy , Drugs and the Brain .  The New York Times called 2012, the year of the MOOCs, see http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/massive-open-online-courses-are-multiplying-at-a-rapid-pace.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&.
Post a Comment
Read more

401K, 403B Rollover into an IRA

I am trying to gather info on the IRA rollover. I am piecing together info I found on the web. 1. Can I Use an IRA Rollover to Move Funds Out of My Company Retirement Plan While I Still Work There? Probably not. Most company retirement plans do not allow you to roll funds out of the plan while you are still employed. To find out if they do, you can call your plan sponsor, and ask if they allow what is called an "in-service distribution". Does AT&T allow? Does TIAA/CREF allow? An in-service distribution is a different type of transaction than a loan or hardship withdrawal. An in-service distribution is a transaction where you can rollover a portion of funds in your plan into a self-directed IRA account while you are still employed. Only some plans allow this. No Longer Employed Once you are no longer employed, it may make sense to roll funds from your plan into an IRA account. At that time, to avoid tax withholding, you'll want to choo...
Post a Comment
Read more