The Federal government's position, then, is "Give me your money. Thank you. Now, if you want me to spend any of your money on education for your kids, you have to let me recruit them as cannon-fodder, eh? No bods, no dough...". Yet a tax-payer may not make a similar bargain, such as "no dough for military adventurism". They have a heavy enforcement arm to disrupt the lives of any who try such a tactic, called the IRS.

I would say the pursuit of happiness is a highly eroded American value in this respect.

A