An Idea for the Democrats

Casualties of War 8
Originally uploaded by Forget Me Knott Photography

If I'm a Democrat candidate for President, I might want to take this idea and run with it.

It would be even better if the government was required to pay fair wages to soldiers during war time — i.e., if combat pay was market-determined and soldiers could opt to leave whenever they wanted, like most jobs. If that were the case, the cost to the government would skyrocket and more accurately reflect the true costs of war, leading to a truer assessment of whether the benefits of military action outweigh the costs.

From a Freakonomics blog post on the idea of a draft.