Moral Hazard

There is in economics the term Moral Hazard, wherein you do not want to arrange matters so that there are unintended detrimental results. The classic moral hazard is welfare payments, wherein the more generous the payments, the fewer able bodied people will work.

This mortgage mess may be setting up an unintended consequence. We have no military draft yet, but who needs one when no bank can foreclose on a home of an active duty military.

The relevant part:

Am I Protected against Foreclosure?

"Mortgage lenders may not foreclose, or seize property for a failure to pay a mortgage debt, while a service member is on active duty or within 90 days after the period of military service unless they have the approval of a court. In a court proceeding, the lender would be required to show that the service member's ability to repay the debt was not affected by his or her military service."

So is there an age limit to when a bread winner can join the military?

No military site will state age limits, but ancillary sites state 42 years old (was 29 before we invaded Iraq.)

That is not to say there are no preparations being made for a draft. For example, the Selective Service has plans for medical workers... to wit:

"Draft a very small percentage of America’s health care providers into military service. Impact on the availability of civilian health care would be minimal. Those health-care workers whose absence would seriously hurt their communities would be deferred on the basis of community essentiality."

You can find much more over at http://www.sss.gov, such as plans to

"Begin a mass registration of male and female health care workers between the ages of 20 and 45."

This is nothing new, this too from teh site:

"In May 1994, President Clinton asked the Secretary of Defense to update its mobilization requirements for the Selective Service System and, as a part of the effort, "continue to review the arguments for and against continuing to exclude women from registration now that they can be assigned to combat roles other than ground combat." In its subsequent report, the DOD position remained "that the restriction of females from assignments below the brigade level whose primary mission is to engage in direct combat on the ground, provides justification from exempting women from registration (and a draft) as set forth in the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Rostker v. Goldberg (1981)." However, the report also recognized the vastly increased role being played by women in each of the Armed Services who, in Fiscal Year 1994, comprised 16 percent of recruits. "Because of this change in the makeup of the Armed Forces," the report observed, "much of the congressional debate which, in the court’s opinion, provided adequate congressional scrutiny of the issue...(in 1981) would be inappropriate today." While maintaining that it was not necessary to register or draft women, the DOD review concluded "the success of the military will increasingly depend upon the participation of women."

And who must register right now?

"Almost all male U.S. citizens, and male aliens living in the U.S., who are 18 through 25, are required to register with Selective Service. It's important to know that even though he is registered, a man will not automatically be inducted into the military. In a crisis requiring a draft, men would be called in sequence determined by random lottery number and year of birth. Then, they would be examined for mental, physical and moral fitness by the military before being deferred or exempted from military service or inducted into the Armed Forces."

How come the changes? If there will be changes, why not consider going to hiring private companies to fight our wars?

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