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this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2024
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That repeated:
If you think having a bunch of kids who are pissed they aren't hanging out with their friends or going to American Pie University or whatever and unleashing them on our parks is a good idea... you've never worked with teenagers.
If someone wants to serve (as in actually help people, not wear camo and expect a handshake from every person they ever see) then that should be supported. But you aren't getting any meaningful skilled work out of people in a year of mandatory service. All you are doing is exploiting cheap labor while providing even more ways for the rich to get richer.
Federal service at this level does not make rich people richer. Working for their corporations does and that's exactly what most people do when they finish school. Corporations even tend to layoff experienced workers and hire new graduates because they are cheaper. Federal service looks this benefits everyone that takes advantage of federal services the agencies provide.
Like I was trying to point out in my example, there is a vast amount of work that federal agencies need done that is not skilled labor. But there is value in exposing young people to a small section of how the federal government operates.
Okay, since it is clear you didn't actually read anything I wrote, I'll try one more time and paste exactly where I addressed that
Yes, being a brand new hire sucks and that means you are on the lowest part of the totem pole when it comes to layoffs.
So the people who graduated college one year early and began accumulating relevant work experience one year earlier? That can make a significant difference. Same with lifetime earnings.
Again, it is great you liked working in a national park. I have a friend who very much loves it too. That isn't something you draft kids into unless you want them to set forest fires during their smoke breaks or creep on visitors. And it takes a decent amount of training to get someone to the point where they can do anything more meaningful than trash pickup and schlepping supplies to a competent person. And when you know they are going to be gone at the end of the year?
But "I maintained trails for a year" is, at best, character building. And when every single candidate whose parents didn't buy their way out of it have something similar? It is worthless from a career perspective. Which, again, is how the rich get richer.
Again, if someone wants to take a year off and make the world a better place? There should e a LOT of benefits to doing that. But in a draft format? At best that is someone misunderstanding what they read in a history book.
Other examples might include environmental work or working with kids. It could all be not only team building but helping people develop an appreciation for their society and help work together to keep it running. It could help people see different perspectives by working together with people they wouldn’t normally interact with. For example, IF you spend a summer cleaning litter from local parks, maybe you’ll be less likely to litter
Peace Corp and WPA were both successes, but a portfolio of similar service opportunities is more likely to include something for everyone
Nobody is saying that service is bad.
But having untrained kids straight out of high school interacting with small children? That is a great path to abuse. And is why basically any summer camp will watch the new staff like a hawk and only give them any degree of autonomy in year two or even four of volunteering.
And the idea of "make everyone work retail to learn to not be an asshole to retail workers" is fundamentally flawed. It is not like working retail or picking up trash is a romanticized job in media. If you somehow don't know it is a shit job then you already lack any empathy and doing a shit job for a year isn't going to help with that.
And, again, you are missing a key point: People join the Peace Corps as volunteers. Not as a mandatory year of service where the options are to dig ditches or join the military. THAT is the key here. What is being proposed is a mandatory year of service and I keep pointing out how that is of very limited use to anyone and is mostly just "physical labor".