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Trump world reportedly flirts with a return to mandatory military service. (www.motherjones.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I actually kinda support a mandatory civil service? Hear me out.

First, while I think structuring it like the military makes sense from an organizational standpoint, I think the focus would be on civil works projects. Maintaining national parks, infrastructure projects like federal interstate system improvements, etc.

This would serve as a way to get a big influx of money and labor into these large scale infrastructure projects in a way that's bipartisan. The Republicans would like it because it's cheap and they support mandatory military service. The Democrats would like it because it's a big public works project that creates jobs and builds out infrastructure.

I think it would also be a unifier and help build a sense of national identity and break people out of their insular bubbles. They say travel is the antidote to bigotry. This would get people from all parts of this nation travelling around and intermingling. The son of a clansman from Arkansas would be exposed to, and have to work closely with, queer people from SoCal. The young gang member from Detroit would be able to get away for a few years and perhaps reinvent themselves. The son of the billionaire will have to work hand and hand and side by side with the kid raised penniless in the foster system.

It gives people a precious few years after highschool to see the nation and not have to make huge decisions about their future careers at 16 years old. It can expose them to different fields of work, and teach them skill to best prepare them for their futures.

All in all, I think a system like this could do a lot of good, both for the people in it, and for our nations failing public works.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I disagree. If you compel people to do a thing, that thing will get done poorly, if it gets done at all.

I think we should do the opposite: ban the draft and immediately end the Selective Service. If we get attacked, people will sign up to defend their homes. If it pays well, people won't wait until we're attacked to sign up.

Here's my counter offer: if you volunteer for your local National Guard, you get:

education assistance consistent with a well-paying job (say, $15-20/hr)
in-state tuition (if you're coming from out of state)
health insurance, depending on the hours donated
housing (on-base, deducted from the education "pay" if needed)

You'd be assigned tasks consistent with your ability, such as cleaning national and state parks, wildfire fighting assistance (not front-line, but supply lines), etc. But everything is on a volunteer basis, and you can quit at any time.

I also think all high school students should be trained on basic firearm safety and use. If they need to fight, they should at least know how guns work on a basic level. But conscription should never be tolerated.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I mean, I still prefer my pitch to yours, but I wouldn't be sad with your idea either.

I don't think your pitch really combats the "people won't actually want to do the work" issue. I think in either example you'll have a lot of people who are "just here so I don't get fined," as it were.

But I think you're overstating that issue in either case. Will it have that issue, sure. But so does the military writ large. Does it impact efficiency, sure. But making an efficient, well oiled machine isn't exactly the point.

But other than that, reading your proposal again, I kinda think that the only thing that makes your proposal different from mine is the mandatory nature of the service.

The benefits you outlined are commensurate with the lower enlisted ranks in the military, so like, yeah, that's what I'm proposing I guess.

I think the benefits of forcing people to leave their bubbles justifies the forced nature of mandatory service. It a means of helping young people escape cycles of abuse, and exposing them to other cultures. It's also a great equalizer, in that it effects poor and rich alike, where your system ends up just admitting poor people who are desperate (not unlike the military as it stands.)

I'd also be open to having a program option where you can defer up to 5yrs to pursue a college degree if it's in a relevant field (civil engineering, etc) and do your mandatory service afterwards utilizing those skills. The program still pays for that college time but gets relevant use out of you at the end. This prevents people who know what they want to do from having to delay and gives them relevant job experience right out of the gate as a resume builder.