Assuming, for the sake of the argument, that we decided that it would be a Good Thing to conscript all 18 and 19 year olds, what would we do with them, for goodness sake? You're talking about roughly 8 million kids.
My guess is that you don't want to put them all in the military, that you have in mind a 21st century version of the CCC, like we had during the Depression.
I presume you intend to have them paid minimum wage, at least, and of course they will get Social Security and health insurance and a place to live and uniforms, so double their wages, maybe, and you're talking what? $20K per head per year? Which is all at the taxpayer's expense. Not to mention the cost of administering the programs they will be working for. Yet another government bureaucracy, or several.
Not to mention the fact that you are removing them from the regular work force, so they'd be earning less money than they did if they had a real job - nobody works for minimum wage around here, anyway.
A lot of employers hire kids right out of high school - for example, my son is looking at NSA and CIA. NSA will even hire high schoolers as summer school interns. So you'd be interfering with the desire of employers in the private sector to give many of these kids jobs, not out of the goodness of their hearts but because they want smart, willing workers that they can train early.
I think if the nation had a crying need to put all these kids on the government payroll, that would be one thing, but not just for do-good makework.
I think it's an emotional, feel-good idea that just is not practical. |
