Men, and potentially now women, must register within 30 days of their 18th birthday and update their address within 10 days of any move until January of their 26th birthday year. The database grows by two to two and a half million records per year and hit 78 million names in 2018.
How many teenagers and people in their early twenty’s take the time to fill out a change of address form every time they move? Out of those 78 million names, how many addresses are up to date? The database is undoubtably severely inaccurate and incomplete.
U.S. tax payers spent $22.9 million in both FY2017 and FY2018 gathering and maintaining this horribly flawed list of people who aren’t interested in joining the military. This underscores the inefficiency in our government, which has contributed to the $22 trillion national debt.
The Selective Service has previously provided personnel to fight in foreign conflicts but hasn’t been leveraged since the Vietnam War. America has been in combat in Afghanistan since 2002 and Iraq since 2003, and those operations have been staffed by volunteers, with no need for a draft.
In all, we currently have 1,281,900 active duty service members and 801,200 reserve members, totaling over two million volunteers. Out of this vast group, there is a constant flow of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines leaving the military against their will for a variety of reasons including regular force reductions and issues with meeting the minimum standards of health, fitness, and personal issues.
How many people who are registered for the draft would actually be fit for service?
Ultimately, tax payers are funding a seriously flawed national database that hasn’t been used or needed in over 45 years. This is not a good use of time, money, or other resources. It is time to abolish the Selective Service.
