The Consequences of Vietnam?

[legion]

I had an interesting thought the other day: Is the Vietnam War responsible for today's litigious society?

Follow me here. You could get an exemption from being drafted for Vietnam if you stayed in school, correct? This encouraged people to get graduate degrees...or go to law school. This produced more lawyers. More lawyers needed more work...so they created their own work. Fast forward to today, and there are two dozen warning labels plastered inside of every new car and I get the privilege of higher retail prices because of product lawsuits.

[kach22i]

Originally posted by legion
You could get an exemption from being drafted for Vietnam if you stayed in school, correct?

You could also get an exemption for being a daddy and the child/wife's only means of support.

Perhaps you could blame the avaliabilty of student aid and student loans which also sprouted in that era. This lead to a surge of more professionals in general.

[legion]

This was, uh-hum, a little before my time. Just throwing out my latest hair-brained theory.

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by legion
I had an interesting thought the other day: Is the Vietnam War responsible for today's litigious society?

You could get an exemption from being drafted for Vietnam if you stayed in school, correct

and there are two dozen warning labels plastered inside of every new car and I get the privilege of higher retail prices because of product lawsuits.

AFAIK
When the draft doesn't draft all equally no matter the circumstances there is a seperation of social thought on war. If the wealthy and the poor fought together today's Conservative vs Progressive tension would hardly exist.

The litigious society is more a natural anti-business thought in general from society and the progressives using the judicary instead of the legislature to pass laws condeming business.

[David McLaughlin]

Originally posted by kach22i
You could also get an exemption for being a daddy and the child/wife's only means of support.

Didn't work in my case. My father was killed when I was 13mos old. His last days are published in "six silent men" (third book in the series)

[kach22i]

Originally posted by David McLaughlin
Didn't work in my case. My father was killed when I was 13mos old. His last days are published in "six silent men" (third book in the series)

Post 1970 then?

http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/The_Draft

The Vietnam Draft had two major anomalies which forced changes in the system. College deferments, fatherhood deferments and disqualifying injuries exempted many middle class men from service in Vietnam. The National Guard, which was only deployed to Vietnam in limited numbers, also served as a safe haven for those seeking to avoid combat duty.

The lesser known exception was Project 100,000.

The Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) places servicemen in five catagories, the lowest, IV and V are usually exempted from service for being too stupid to serve. But in 1966, then Secretary of Defense McNamara decided to draft these men, in order to give them useful skills and improve their literacy. Instead, most were shoved into combat units, leading to decreased effectiveness. In 1970, the draft was changed to a lottery, with far fewer exemptions, and is still presently the system we have today.

It wasn't until Vietnam that people began to object to the draft in a serious way. While some people had tried to avoid service in Korea, the use of National Guard units and a widespread use of reserves provided no safe harbor, despite the war's unpopularity.