REduce unemployment

Sounds like socialism to me.

Sounds like a lot more government spending.

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I don't think you'd find any general who wants to return to having draftees.
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Every military person I know would disagree with you. Volunteer army creates a more professional morale, rather than a bunch of people who didn't want to be there fighting for something they don't believe in (Vietnam?).

And as was already pointed out in this thread, I don't know any unemployed guys my age. They're all struggling to stay above bills, and go to college, but they're working.

I'm guessing this thread was started when a bunch of kids wouldn't get off OS's lawn...

Benji you misunderstand. The current economy has many areas into high 20% unemployment rates, with youth hardest hit. The 'benifits' packages are overwhelming the already limited tax base. So a 'fair exchange' of National Service for a short period for benifits helps both sides of the equation.

"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.." JFK

A band-aid for the current problem, give a sense of self worth over furthering a culture of dependancy.

It's going to increase taxes quite a bit. You still down?

Again a National Service to include domestic service agencies as well as the military.

The generalization of the Vietnam era pothead collecting disability for life is false. Department of Veterans Affairs numbers show that the Vietnam and post Vietnam military are far more successfull than the minute percentage of 'non-conforming' personalities. The propaganda of the less than 1% representing the Veteran is a false pretense, over 99% continued on with life, and in hindsight find the expieriance benifited rather than hindered thier later lives.

oldsoldier wrote: Again a National Service to include domestic service agencies as well as the military. The generalization of the Vietnam era pothead collecting disability for life is false. Department of Veterans Affairs numbers show that the Vietnam and post Vietnam military are far more successfull than the minute percentage of 'non-conforming' personalities. The propaganda of the less than 1% representing the Veteran is a false pretense, over 99% continued on with life, and in hindsight find the expieriance benifited rather than hindered thier later lives.

I'm not talking about Vietnam era potheads, I'm talking about 2010 era potheads.

Edited by stratoaxe - 19 August 2010 at 10:55am

Speaking about yourself? It has been done, and can be done again, trust me..........

"*edit* to put it another way, the military isn't going to magically change lazy, unmotivated people into hard working individuals. It may some, but it'll simply give many of them a whole new outlet of options to stay lazy and unmotivated."

Just watch Full Metal Jacket, represents what you can understand about mental conditioning, believe me it was a lot worse in your fathers and my era in BT.

Peer presure and an instilled sense of pride in self will correct many social problems, something current society and culture do not instill in the young mind as a priority.

Edited by oldsoldier - 19 August 2010 at 11:10am

That's just like, your opinion, man.

Alright, time to introduce a little statistics into this otherwise speculative argument.

The Department of Labor recently published a finding that 37% of 18-24 year olds not in college are currently unemployed. Of those 37% unemployed, 23% are not actively searching for a job and the remaining 14% have said that they would refuse an offer for a well paid position if it wasn't exactly what they were looking for.

What this says to me is that Gen Y isn't taking the economic situation nearly as seriously as they should. For starters, that is the highest unemployment rate in that age range since the great depression. Secondly, the entire generation has been told that they can grow up to be whatever they want to be, which has created a surplus of individuals with useless degrees in subjects such as philosophy, sculpture, dance, and other fields of limited capacity.

I think that we're going to see a breakdown in the not too distant future. We're going to see the same loss of a generation just as we did with the dust bowl and the great depression. Gen Y, while many will be successful, will be marred with a disproportionate number of deadbeats who will ultimately wind up working menial tasks much like the dust-bowl farmers who picked up and moved to the central valley of California.

I also think you're going to see a resurgence of manufacturing and labor based jobs here in the US in the next several decades. China has outgrown their ability to produce cheap goods. The living wage has simply grown too high for them to continue to manufacture items of decent quality at low costs. Vietnam has already picked up some of the slack, as has Thailand, but their combined workforce is simply too small to take over from China. Furthermore, the need for quality is forcing many manufacturers to charge more for their products, which, when combined with shipping costs, is making it cost prohibitive to do business here in the US. This means that much like foreign auto makers, I expect to see companies bring their production facilities back to the US to be able to compete at a higher level.

That said, as to the original topic at hand, a forced draft is a horrible idea. One simply needs to look at Vietnam and the current military situation in Russia to know that conscription simply does not work within a professional military establishment.