Conscription = Slavery ?

[Dill]

(12-04-2016, 08:44 AM)Rotobeast Wrote: With the debate of women registering for selective service, I began thinking about the idea of a draft.

How can it not be considered slavery ?
People (majority of them) are forced into doing something they otherwise would have no part of and will be jailed should they outright refuse.

I really don't see how the Supreme Court could view slavery and conscription as being different.

I know we have some military guys here and I'm anxious to hear your thoughts.
I respect what you've done to help our country and do not feel that anyone is above those of you who've served.
My thoughts dwell mostly on the government's hypocrisy and our freedom, which you've helped preserve.

So.....

I'm not a military guy, but I don't think conscription, in itself, is slavery or even a bad thing. Much depends on what sort of military you are conscripted into and for what purposes. E.g., British style impressment in the 18th and early 19th century might qualify as slavery or involuntary servitude.

In the US context I don't think it ever has been slavery. People are not bought and sold. They are paid. They have time off. There is time limit for service. The goal is not some master's profit but preserving the conditions under which the rest of society, including possibly the conscript's family, can remain free. 

We can have discussions like this because the US has not really been under existential threat since the height of the Cold War, and we've not been engaged in a hot war that was an existential threat since WWII.

Until recently, Germans had universal male conscription. Those who did not want to join the military could serve the country in other capacities, such as ambulance drivers.  I don't know why that would be bad in the US, where so much of the population is so far from sacrificing anything to keep their 1st-world lifestyles.  Perhaps people would take politics more seriously if they had some skin in the game.