General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: All hands on deck. A call for national service. [View all]MineralMan
(146,308 posts)We have never had a mandatory national service requirement. It is not something that fits our national psyche. The first thing that would happen would be a demand from wealthy Americans that their offspring be exempted from it. The second would be massive resistance from people who were about to be conscripted into the program.
The entire thing would collapse. Either that or only poor, non-white people would be forced into this servitude system.
Look back to your 18th birthday. Think about it. When I turned 18, I was liable for the draft. In fact, little more than a year later, I enlisted into the USAF because I got my draft notice. I spent four years doing what the USAF wanted me to do. It wasn't what I would have chosen to do, although it was not altogether awful. I ended up being sent to a total immersion Russian language program and then to do interesting things.
I could have been sent to assemble nuclear weapons, though, or to load armaments on planes. I was fortunate.
Involuntary servitude of any kind is anathema in this country. We will not have it. We would not accept it. Period.