Why Drafting Women Is a Terrible Idea

During last Saturday’s GOP presidential debate, the candidates were asked if they would support mandatory registration for women with the Selective Service System now that women are allowed combat positions in the US military. The Selective Service, of course, is the federal agency that maintains a list of potential conscripts should the US government ever decide to reinstitute the draft.

Wilhelm Röpke (1899 - 1966)

“I champion an economic order ruled by free prices and markets...the only economic order compatible with human freedom.”

Wilhelm Röpke died on this date fifty years ago. He was an excellent economist thoroughly grounded in a realistic view of human action and who, therefore, continually fought against the dehumanizing effects of Keynesian and mathematical economics. He has also served as one of my intellectual inspirations in his effort to incorporate economics into the broader fabric of general social thought.