Prometheus 6

I said

All he had to say was, "I didn't say that's the only way into the military." He could add, "But it's a sure way to the most dangerous, least attractive MOS available."

Economists say

"the Selective Service Board will draft young people who are potentially brilliant brain surgeons, inventors and economists -- young people with high opportunity costs of entering the service -- and will leave undrafted some young people with much lower opportunity costs. The social loss is avoided under a voluntary system, in which precisely those with the lowest costs will volunteer."

Kerry Trips Over an Economic Truth
By Uwe E. Reinhardt
Saturday, November 4, 2006; A23

There is no question that Sen. John F. Kerry owed our men and women in the military and their families the apology he offered this week. Even in clumsy jest, if that is what his remarks were, they could not have come across as anything but insulting.

Truth be told, however, economics professors routinely instruct their students on the virtue of the all-volunteer army in language that comes dangerously close to Kerry's uncouth remark.