Resolved: Military Conscription is Unjust

This will be a Lincoln Douglas style debate) B.H. Liddell once wrote, "conscription is the cancer of civilization." Because I agree with Liddell I Affirm today's Resolution. Resolved: Military Conscription Is Unjust. Military conscription is defined by wordnet.princeton as "compulsory military service in a time of war." and by Random House 2009 as, "a compulsory contribution of money to a government during a time of war." Unjust is defined by Webster's online dictionary as, "violating the principles of justice" I will value the principles of justice, upheld by a criterion of government obligation In order to achieve the most amount of justice, one must first value the principles of justice. John Rawls states that the first principle of justice is that each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties. The second principle is that of wealth, where Rawls states that the deliberation must be to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged, and must be attached to offices and positions open to all, under conditions of equal opportunity. Conscription in and of itself violates both principles. Rawl's concludes that sacrifices must not surpass the gains. In true conscription you are sacrificing much more than you are gaining, because in all reality you aren't gaining anything. You are merely setting out to secure what should and may already be in place. The principles of justice are best upheld under this resolution by government obligation. The key role of government is to uphold the principles of justice towards its citizens. If the people feel the war is necessary, and the government is legitimate, it will have no problem enlisting enough volunteers to fight in a war. If a government was to have a problem with enlisting enough people, it would either be because the government is illegitimate, or the people did not see the war as reasonable. Either way conscription would be counter-productive. A legitimate state is obligated to protecting the peoples rights, not to subjugating its people in order to protect themselves. In the words of John Stuart Mill, "First, by obtaining a recognition of certain immunities, called political liberties or rights, which it was to be regarded as a breach of duty in the ruler to infringe; and which if he did infringe, specific resistance, or general rebellion, was held to be justifiable." Observation 1 -A strict definition of conscription is the only way to provide adequate ground for debate. you can't assume that the people have given the government consent to be conscripted. This proves that the people would not be in agreement that the war was necessary. Thus, conscription, as I defined, gives the government a blank check to use conscription as a tool to subjugate society. Contention 1. Conscription immensely hinders the economy. Paolo Buonanno from UC Berkeley and the University of Bergamo writes in 2007. Our results suggest that the effect of military conscription on subsequent earnings is significant and long-lasting. Males who served in the National Service earn on average between 4 and 6 percentage points LESS than the immediate, subsequent, cohort, exempt from compulsory military service. The effect of compulsory military service or contribution would be equally as harmful to the economy as the draft, if not more. This wouldn't be a politically motivated argument, because the negative effect on the economy is bound to happen either way. Contention 2. Conscription upholds communist ideals. The word collectivism is a very deceiving word. It is like giving a cannibal a finger in hope of saving your arm, your finger being the earlier mentioned rights lost, in hope of saving your fundamental right to life. collectivism is defined by Webster's online dictionary as, "the subjugation of individuals to a much larger group" and what you must realize is that conscription is the most extreme form of collectivism, because of what it entails, and by how it is defined. The definition of conscription is not nearly extensive enough to prove that a government would not be able to convene upon a citizen's life when ever the GOVERNMENT felt it was necessary. They wouldn't really care if they physically or financially handicapped you, because they would rationalize their decision by making the surviving citizens to believe that there was no way around war. Collectivism, to be put more simply, and defined by Webster's online dictionary is "Bolshevism or Soviet Communism." Contention 3. You are shooting yourself in the foot with conscription. Subpoint A. There is no check on authority. The government would have massive man power to go to war for whatever THEY felt was necessary. The simple idea of compulsory military service or contribution in a time of war is not broad enough to prove that the government would not abuse their power. IF there were to be conscription, the definition does not state that all governments will use conscription in a rational manner. Subpoint B. There is no check on the scope. The idea of compulsory military service or support in a time of war is not ample enough to include certain specifications, such as exclusion policies. We must accept the fact that women, children, mentally handicapped, elders, convicted prisoners, upon many other undeserving beings will be drafted. We must also accept the fact that compulsory is defined as, "required by rule" NOT "required to serve or support for a prior specified amount of time." Practically, The government could dedicate you or a loved one's life to the military without prior consent. conscription can be considered nothing but an injustice first because there are no limits to what the government can and can't do, and most importantly because conscription blatantly violates the principles of justice, conscription can be considered nothing but an injustice........... As Martin Luther King Jr. would put it,"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." and it is for these reasons why I respectfully urge a ballot in affirmation.