I’m not opposed to a mandatory community service year upon turning 18, where a person who is physically and mentally able is required to spend 12 months PAID to work in a government organized community service program. This can help new adults gain new skills, create contacts, get references, and get off on the right foot financially.
But “military” is definitely not the right direction. IMO
In my country, if you can’t do the mandatory military service (and yes, being a pacifist is a valid reason I believe), you can do the same amount of time working for a charity and get paid minimum wage. I know a guy who worked for the food bank, but there are other options obviously.
It’s not the perfect program - I’d prefer if you could just immediately choose to do the humanitarian service instead of the military one, rather than having to go through the medical check for the military one first. And I think minimum wage is pretty horrible if you don’t also get provided housing… But overall, I like the idea.
I totally would have done it. I really needed some time on my own.
Fun Fact: This section of Project 2025 was written by Christopher Miller.
You might know him from such things as “On January 5, Miller issued orders which prohibited deploying D.C. Guard members with weapons, helmets, body armor or riot control agents without his personal approval.”
That dude has a lot of forehead.
Rich kids and those with bone spurs will be exempt.
Endless War is a Hallmark of Fascism. This will require a large number of cannon fodder.
My school had us all take it at 16.
If you refused you had to go sit in the cafeteria by yourself and weren’t allowed to even study. Just sit there with your eyes open not doing anything for like 4 hours.
Fuck that’s awful. Were you in Idaho or something equally awful?
They had us take it in the 90s in my high school but we quickly knew it was worth nothing so everyone tanked it on purpose. We were already weary of standardized testing and knew just what to ask the teachers.
Malicious compliance is always fun but way better in groups.
Cool, but we also take Finland’s law about tuition: it’s illegal to charge it.
No private schools. It’s done wonders for their society because the rich people invest in the same schools as everyone else.
For those not familiar with it, it is an aptitude test that covers a wide range of topics. The results can be informational. Beware if you score well enough to fill a job in the army that is really understaffed, you will never get the recruiters to stop calling.
We took it senior year and I really didn’t know about it at the time. I must have flipped some switch because every branch started calling, and a navy recruiter actually came to my house wanting to talk about nuke school. I was like I don’t want to bomb anyone with nukes thank you very much lol.
NPS ‘nuke school’ focuses mainly on shipboard nuclear power plant operation, like nuclear powered subs.
I read that as “nuclear powered studs” and was thinking “about right for navy”
I had all 3 branches showing up at my house and lying to my face to get me to join after my school made me take it.
You’d think they would realize that lying to someone who scored really high was a bad idea.
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But you could sail the seven seas…
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You’d be surprised how many private schools receive federal funding.
But honestly this isn’t the worst thing. As long as it’s interacted with in an honest manner the ASVAB is an excellent career test. So an honest interaction with it would be counselors telling students their results and showing them career paths that line up with those results. To be clear, we’re talking about civilian career paths.
The problem is I don’t hear about it being done that way anymore. (My highschool did exactly the above) I only hear about it being used by recruiters, for recruiting.
When I took my asvab I was surprised when they told me my mechanical aptitude was really good…didn’t know a Phillips from a flat head but wound up as an aircraft mechanic which was fuckin dope!
Oh God, I was an idiot. My recruiter said I qualified for everything. I told him I wanted to be an Airborne Infantryman. He repeated, Everything, could write my own ticket. So I decided… To double down on an Airborne School and Infantry contract. If I could go back in time I’d give that man a beer, slap myself, and forge my own signature on a military intelligence analyst contract. I’d have loved that job, learning languages, embassy postings (travel), and being all up in everyone’s tea. But no 17 year old Maggoty had to be a dumbass.
Lmao, I have similar story but it actually worked out in the end for me. When I signed up for the Air Force I did really well on my ASVAB, but I told my recruiter that I wanted to leave as soon as possible because I just wanted to go already. Well she signed me up for open general, meaning the AF would pick my job for me. So I left for boot camp with no job and was assigned Cyber Security Analyst. Which was super lucky because I could have also been a cook or a cop or something
Dude, you were kissed by Murphy.