This message was self-deleted by its author

[wickerwoman]

1031. Not everyone has the same capabilities.

Last edited Thu May 1, 2014, 06:49 AM - Edit history (5)

You are going to have to offer exemptions at least for the mentally and physically handicapped and probably also for single parents with dependants. Or are you going to take kids away from teen mothers for three years and put them in foster care while mom does her military service? Does that actually create a net benefit to society? Mental illness also tends to surface in the late teens. Are you going to compel national service from bipolar, schizophrenic and sociopathic kids?

And as long as you have exemptions, you will have people abusing them- girls getting intentionally knocked up to avoid service or people faking major depression, etc.

The other end of it is that there are always going to be cushy jobs and shit jobs. How do you decide who gets what? Random assignment? Most geniuses in many disciplines (computer science, mathematics, physics, etc.) do their most brilliant work before they hit 25. What would be the net benefit to society if Sergey Brin or Bill Gates had spent three years getting shot at or schlepping around sandbags for hurricane protection instead of founding multi-billion dollar tech companies during their peak years for innovation? What about kids working on cancer research, 3-D printing, robotics, data compression, universal translators, renewable energy, biodiversity? What is the actual benefit to society of asking them to put their research and learning on hold for 3 years so they can learn how to march in neat rows versus what they would have accomplished with those three years if they had been allowed to follow their passions and put their actual talents to use?

Are you going to require actors, models, musicians and athletes to do mandatory service? Are you going to compensate them for taking away a good chunk of their best years? Are you going to take on legal liability for potentially career-ending injuries sustained in the course of national service?

And if you don't assign jobs randomly, but try to match them by talents and interests, all of the cushy jobs are going to be soaked up by the rich kids whose parents can afford to get them training in the skills that qualify them for the cushy jobs and all the middle-class and poor kids are going to get the shit ones (except for the rare super-genius).

And that's not even getting into the absolute bureaucratic shitstorm that would be involved in creating a system that could match job requirements against skills, interests and aptitudes for 16.5 million people every year.