A Case for a ‘National Service Corps’
in the service of democracy
Three big reasons our democracy (in the U.S.) did as well as it did in the third quarter of the 20th century were WW’s I and II as well as the Great Depression that occurred between the two. In those global conflagrations people from all walks of life were thrown together for the sake of the ‘war effort’. This was vastly more true of WWII, but there was a measure of it in the ‘Great War’. In the Depression, hardship and the risk of even being reduced to penury were faced by almost all of the citizens of this nation.
All of that shared experience contributed to a genuine sense of the nation as one big community — in the good way, as people knowingly and gratefully depending on one another, not mere stupid chauvinism in the name of ‘patriotism’. It melded together millions of disparate people.
A National Service Corp would create a shared experience of that kind — but way easier. People of all kinds from all different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds would find themselves thrown together for a couple of years at the age of, say, 18 to help provide public goods and services of all kinds. (It could include military service for those who wanted to spend it that way.) Sure, frictions would occur. No doubt, some rough justice would get meted out. The benefits to a democratic society would, however, be beyond counting.
“Benefits” brings to mind ‘costs’. How could we pay for such a thing?
What can I say? My paradigm for “A Most Beneficial Economic Change”* would make it free (and the participants would be paid the ‘democratically distributed income’, which would be sufficient to actually live on. That to me sounds like a good time: a well-funded, care-free existence only interrupted Monday through Friday by a few hours of undemanding work each day.
I am reminded of a book I read, Village in the Vaucluse, by Laurence Wylie. It seems that in that part of the world parents were expected to provide for their children a year of absolutely care-free life before they undertook the cares and responsibilities associated with being adults.
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The linked ‘article’ is a “2 min read” here in Medium with links to several essays about the paradigm from various angles — with, for the benefit of ‘guest readers’, nothing I publish here behind the paywall.