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Politics : A US National Health Care System?
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To: TimF who wrote (23545)3/30/2012 2:50:50 PM
From: Lane3  Read Replies (1) of 42652
 
Less than one percent of the population is a member

If you want to determine the critical mass of the Boy Scouts, the percentage of current members vs the current population is not a useful metric. Either the percentage of current members vs boys in the age range or percentage of the current male population over membership age who were ever members. Your metric trivializes the scope, either intentionally or unintentionally. It also disregards the benefits to the broader community.

The Boy Scouts are not society or even a huge portion of society.

In some places they are. Small towns can be totally entangled with the Scouts, particularly in flyover areas. It's like football in Texas, a key part of the culture. You have to be a part of it or you don't fit in. In my hometown it was the VFW that owned the town. They organized the Labor Day parade and picnic, for example. They shunned men who had not served even at events for the whole community.

I was never a Girl Scout but I was a Brownie. The scouts were organized by church. Most of my friends belonged to the Brownies at one of the Protestant Churches. In my town, we all wore our uniforms to school one day a week. When it came time to "fly up" to the Girl Scouts, the criteria at my friends' troop and mine were different (age vs grade) and they all flew up and I didn't. So I quit the Brownies rather than wear my Brownie uniform to school when they were all Girl Scouts. I'm not trying to make this into some great personal tragedy, only to illustrate how entangled the Scouts and other ubiquitous private institutions can be with the community.

but they (or more likely their parents) might keep them out because of the groups ideas

At last you're finally into the voluntary arena. Kids may not want to join because of the group's ideas or their parents may not allow them to join. That's voluntary. When the group excludes the kid, membership is not voluntary. Surely you can see that distinction.
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