Totalitarian Method
20 November 2006
Editor, The Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Editor:
How ironic that Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) renews his call for a draft just days after the death of Milton Friedman ("Amid Uproar Over War, Rangel Renews Call for Draft," Nov. 20). I recommend that Rep. Rangel read Christopher Hitchens's book Letters to a Young Contrarian, in which Hitchens explains how Friedman, along with Alan Greenspan, persuaded the Nixon administration that conscription is (as Friedman accurately described it) "slavery."
Friedman and Greenspan understood, as Hitchens understands, a fact that seems lost on Rep. Rangel: conscription reflects the totalitarian idea that the citizen is the property of the state.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Editor, The Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Editor:
How ironic that Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) renews his call for a draft just days after the death of Milton Friedman ("Amid Uproar Over War, Rangel Renews Call for Draft," Nov. 20). I recommend that Rep. Rangel read Christopher Hitchens's book Letters to a Young Contrarian, in which Hitchens explains how Friedman, along with Alan Greenspan, persuaded the Nixon administration that conscription is (as Friedman accurately described it) "slavery."
Friedman and Greenspan understood, as Hitchens understands, a fact that seems lost on Rep. Rangel: conscription reflects the totalitarian idea that the citizen is the property of the state.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Saturday July 14, 2007 at 7:41am