[ajkjk]

Eh disagree. It makes a lot of sense to me. If everyone is doing a duty and you shirk it of course you are betraying everyone else.

Notwithstanding the military service being mandatory for really bad reasons, but if it's South Korea it's kinda not?

Saying the only way to 'owe' anything is through money sounds like a... weird Americanism to me (speaking as an American).

[weebull]

Could also be Israel, Switzerland, Greece, Brazil, or any number of other places

[ajkjk]

True. But imo it is up to the country to decide if they think military service is a social duty, so, whatever. The idea that "taxes are all there is" is... Missing cultural relativism, I guess.

Ofc, caveat, if it's rich people deciding poor people have to do service, then yeah that's messed up. But kind of a separate issue.

[glimshe]

It's not Brazil. It's just one year there (for those who want to serve, in practice), and you can't quit before the said year is over.

[ninkendo]

> Saying the only way to 'owe' anything is through money sounds like a... weird Americanism to me (speaking as an American).

In their defense, using taxes to pay others to do the work of maintaining/defending a nation allows better specialization of labor which can have its advantages. But it needs to be balanced with actual shared effort too, especially with things like national defense.