We summarize the economic rationale against military draft and related forms of compulsory services. Such schemes forego the benefits of specialization and ignore comparative advantages. Introducing or extending compulsory labor services would exacerbate, rather than alleviate, the challenges from population aging and escalate intergenerational imbalances. We suggest that the political allure of conscription arises from the possibility to concentrate the tax burden on a minority of voters in a way that is generally held to be unacceptable with normal taxation.