Whats in the News: Part 4 - Mandatory Military Service

For years McCain has warned that a draft will be necessary if we don’t boost
military pay, and he has long agitated for mandatory national service.“Those who
claim their liberty but not their duty to the civilization that ensures it live
a half-life, indulging their self-interest at the cost of their self-respect,”
he wrote in The Washington Monthly in 2001. “Sacrifice for a cause
greater than self-interest, however, and you invest your life with the eminence
of that cause. Americans did not fight and win World War II as discrete
individuals.”

這句話是什麼意思呢? 簡單講，就是美國共和黨的總統候選人認為每個老美都應該為國家服務，去當兵。

美國之前在越戰時就是這樣。希望他不要走後退的路。當兵有什麼不好呢? 隨便問一個即將畢業的人就知道了。經濟學家會跟你講機會成本，社會成本等名詞，但是我發現都沒有那幾位當兵的人講的生動。