Sometimes democratic societies draft adult citizens to perform a task. Many states draft young adults to the military. From a Rawlsian perspective, conscription is justified only if it is needed for the protection of basic liberties. Military service is a very stressful life event that leaves conscripts disadvantaged for the remainder of their lives. Conscripts must use private resources and time, as well as mental and physical capacity, to produce a public good - national defence. I argue that conscripts are owed, as a matter of justice, earlier access to retirement to compensate for the disadvantage they experience and the free time they lose. Public pension schemes are suitable instruments of distributive justice as they distribute financially supported free time to individuals.
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