this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2024
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Instead of mandatory military service like some countries have, people should have mandatory public work for two years. Whether it be labor, clerical/administrative, etc, it could help young people learn a new skill, get guaranteed work to get the started, and could potentially save a ton in taxes. It would also create the opportunity to start getting caught up some things that keep getting swept under the rug like bridge maintenance , etc.
In my country mandatory military service, aka conscription, is used to take away men's freedoms, you can't travel, you can't work, you can't participate in politics, you can't go to hotels... Etc.. And it's all necessary for thé but not for me, meaning the generals and the minister's children don't go to the military unstead they go to a business school and start companies all over the world, with people's money.. of course
We had something like that in Germany, if you opted out of military service, you had to do civil service instead, i.e. you had to work in an institution that provided some benefit to the general public.
Most of those jobs were healthcare related, such as working in a hospital, as ambulance driver, kindergarten teacher, assisted living helper etc., or working in a supervisory rule for a company that employed people with disabilities to make sure they don't get injured in the workplace.
Both my brother and I did it (they later scraped military service, and the civil service as a consequence), and it was really amazing. He went to work in a food factory where people with mental disabilities were employed to sort raw ingredients (think removing debris and washing fruit and vegetables for juice, yoghurt & pickling), I worked as a nurse in a hospital.
Gave both of us a good twist for our careers, he moved on to study education for people with disabilities and now works as a special ed teacher for an integrative school, I went on to work in the development aid sector all across Africa and Central Asia for years.
So what does Germany have now that they've scrapped it?
Overworked healthcare staff since nobody can realistically replace the cheap labor coming from a government program, plus an understaffed military (180k personnel instead of 203k as per the budget).
There's the federal volunteer service, which is the spiritual successor. Basically the same thing, but without being forced into it. There also voluntary social or ecological years, which is kind of the same thing as well.
I read that as: They scrapped the whole thing as a consequence of you and your brother doing it? You must have been really bad.
I’d include military service in that. But yes mandatory service for everyone.
Edit. No exceptions if your mom / dad is a senator or anything… medical? Great there is tons of paperwork that needs to be done. Basically every one yeah.
Yeah. Similar to this I think junior high should have a bigger focus on being outside. Like one semester should be spend camping or something. It’s such a formative time and so many kids spend it scrolling through reels. There is something so real and unforgiving about Mother Nature that a 13 year old should really know about.
the top 50% richest people should have
The rest of people are already working these mandatory jobs.
Same type of work, sure, but the fruits of their labour are going towards shareholders. The point of public work is that it's for the public good.
True, still not a huge fan of forced labour. I don’t like the idea of forced anything really.