The U.S. government tried to get rid of immigrants before and replace them with American high school student athletes and most of them quit https://www.kvpr.org/2018-08-23/when-the-u-s-government-tried-to-replace-migrant-farmworkers-with-high-schoolers
So farmers should get free slave labor provided by me? Because nothing else in our system would change. No thanks lol
When we still had mandatory military service in Germany, one could alternatively choose to work in social services for 1-1,5 years. I worked a year in a hospital as an assistance nurse. Others worked in youth centers, community center or retirement homes. That year was not a pleasant one, as Zivis (thats what we were called) got exploited by the hospital stuff (always getting the worst shifts, always getting the shitty jobs, being used for jobs we were not qualified to do and so on).
Despite that I honestly think it was worth it. It helped to find oneself to do something different before starting university and it also helped to improve social and medical services.
The only real criticism I have is the aforementioned exploitation. There should have been better mechanisms in place to prevent this. And maybe the payment should have been a little better. I think we got ~8€/calender day plus free board and lodging; this wasn’t great.
Before 1989 there was also a third option: move to West Berlin!
I honestly unironically support it. Lots of people should go touch some grass sometimes. It gives you some movement, builds an understanding for where our food “really comes from”, and connects people in a way similar to the military, but less targeted on warfare.
Would make sense, if it wasn’t an exploitation scheme.
The only problem is the exploitative angle of the whole thing. They do underpaid work, but the farm owning corporation gets to keep the profits.
Would’ve done me a lot of good when I was young that’s for sure.
Sounds good. Too bad the rich and politically powerful will be able to dodge, just like they dodge the draft.
Great idea from Soviet Union. Just ask them, how this turned out.
Pretty sure the quota system and the complete govt disregard for ag-science was to blame, and not the Labor force for that one.
You are right. The government disregard for anything contributed largely for the demise of the union.
However, I am fortunate enough to never experience this, but my parents had to participate in kolkhozes and it was terrible.
I guess, what I am trying to say is, MAGA would not appreciate such an agricultural system.
Holy shit, Horseshoe Theory IS real
Older Hungarian rightists are begging Fidesz to reinvent mandatory labor because “the youth is lazy”.
Silly “leftists” when Conservatives reinvent Maoism: 😱
Seriously though, horseshoe theory is nonsense.
Turns out that the “Great Leap Forward” is actually circular.
I think all citizens should have to go through the military’s Basic Training when they hit 18. No need to do the 4 years of service if they don’t want to, but do have to make it through boot camp, even if you want to go to university.
As a scientist (i.e. someone who went through a lot of academia) who’s strictly opposed to taking a gun, especially in the name of a state, hell no.
A better idea would probably be to advocate for peace, so that people wouldn’t have to learn these things to begin with.
Military is not productive labor, it’s just draining countless lives and resources in the name of some guy’s fucked up ambitions.
Not really talking about the guns part. More the working out, the team building, the discipline. When I did basic training we only had like 1 or 2 days for training with guns. I was in the navy tho.
All of those can be taught in a civilian way, ideally in school. As much as I personally hate exercising, schools do need more PE and more sports and civil service events that would tie people together. Discipline, too, is part of a solid school background, although, and this is the problem with the army too, it must not be confused with obedience.
I have a better idea, NO
I dunno… being trained in individual and squad movement tactics might come in handy over the next 4 years. Firearms training too, that in restricted states can let you skip classes you’d otherwise pay for is cool too, and would be handy for a lot of peeps.
I could not possibly resist the intrusive thoughts that come with carrying a rifle.
👍
Yeah, we should go back to an agricultural economy, like 200 years ago!
We still live in a world with mandatory military service in many countries. I’d trade it for that.
But otherwise thanks, I’d rather have neither.
Military service exists for a reason though, and a good one. I disagree with it but I understand its need all too much.
This, however is just the new extremist and inept government making decisions that break things, so to fill those holes they’ll just break other things.
It won’t last
Over a decade ago, Obama proposed significantly expanding AmeriCorps, the tea party Republicans basically did everything they could to water down the expansion to amount to basically nothing.
I wonder if Twitter Republicans even know AmeriCorps exists.
Stop demonizing your neighbor. Demonize the 1%.
That income range still very much encompasses “normal” people who already pay a large share of income taxes.
Tax the super rich (both income and wealth), and redistribute that money via healthcare, education and social programs like UBI.
To be fair, we can’t get to higher taxes and social services without both mass labor organization and recent successful Socialist revolution, which is what allowed the New Deal to go through. Socialism is still a necessity, and that starts with organizing.
Stop demonizing your neighbor. Demonize the 1%.
Even more than the 1%, the 0.0001%. An excellent resource to illustrate this point:
I feel like everyone should go through this at least once. It’s eye-opening. Even people who we generally think of as crazy rich, like the average hedge fund manager, are just a drop of water in a pond compared to the ultra-wealthy.
I made it to the trillions but I clicked the paper billionair link and then had to restart. Fuck that haha
From there it just talks about a lot of things we could do with a fraction of the wealth of the wealthiest 400 Americans. Things like ending homelessness in America, ending malaria worldwide, and many others. By mildly inconveniencing 400 people, who would still all be absurdly wealthy billionaires even if 60% of their wealth were taken, we could dramatically improve the world.
Yeah people don’t get this. Many of those people may agree with you and were simply lucky enough to get comfortable in life. They are certainly not the main contributors to inequality in our society.
I like to say it like this: I’m doing alright, but not “able to weather serious healthcare in America” alright. I think that’s a decent way to lessen the confusion of class divide.
how to tell when someone has just had their 31st birthday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCF2RdtLMNQ
Against me! - Those Anarcho Punks Are Mysterious
Wrong thread, sorry.
Didn’t they try this already on like teenagers or college students or something? Didn’t it go horribly wrong?
+3,000 student athletes in The A-Team. And yes it went horribly wrong. Some students started unionizing immediately.
I’m bookmarking this article. Probably gonna use it a lot these coming years.
Thank you!! I was trying to find this but was struggling to find an article about it.
“Make America Great Leap Forward Again”
I for one will be sowing all my seed incredibly close together, the plants will grow stronger together. Also all birds are now counter revolutionary, get out your noisiest banging pans my dudes.
Also, how do I invest in pig iron futures?
Yeah, can’t wait to see what a bunch of bored teenagers and twenty somethings will do to our food supply after the first couple of seasons fucking around. Forced labor also doesn’t mean quality labor.
Authoritarians never learn that forcing people to act like they want doesn’t work.
RFK Jr has seriously proposed sending drug addicts, which he defines as people taking prescribed medication for mental health reasons, as well as your more stereotypical hardcore drug addicts… to basically agricultural work / detox camps.
No meds, no phone, live in a barracks, do farm work… while you and everyone else are cold turkey quitting heroin, or fentanyl, or ritalin or zoloft or wellbutrin.
That sounds like a program ripe for abuse.
Thankfully, that will never happen. /heavy amount of sarcasm
The thing about forced labor is that quantity is its own quality.
You can also use certain government controlled documents as an incentive. For instance, it was common in the Soviet Union to use agricultural service as a requisite for graduation.
Its actually been done before and most teens quitted or were fired within weeks because of the inhuman working conditions. The quality of the work they would do is completely irrelevant.
It sounds better than forced military service.
The trick is just that everyone has to do it. Without exemptions for rich, influential etc…. (Ofc. not disabled, pregnant etc…)
You will quickly find all the rich have bone spurs which prevents their service.
Now get back to the fields peasant.
