Is conscription the answer?

As the jobless numbers rise, and school leavers are going to have even more trouble finding a job I wonder "is conscription the answer"?.

There is about 100 houses on my street and quite a few people in these houses are young, healthy and out of work. I dont think they want to work, there parents dont work either.

I think that if after 6 months of unemployment you where drafted into the army it would benefit everybody. Crime would be lower, benefit payments would be lower and the those people would be earning money and learning new skills.

What do you think?

I think that's really a lame idea, forced servitude?
Not likely!

So, those that may not be able to find a job or afford to travel to find one should get tossed in? Lame!

It wouldn't be any less expensive though. Dole money is £60.50 each week, the Army would have to pay more than that in wages, then you've got the training aspect to cost in. Plus a legion of administrators required to track down people who don't turn up for their national service, police to round them up & courts to sentence them. It'd cost a fortune.

And what to do with them once they're in the Army ? Or Navy etc. Fair enough the Army is a little stretched at the moment, but several hundred thousand new soldiers wouldn't have anything to do really, there's no major wars to fight, our world is largely at peace thankfully.

Frankly, so many of the long term unemployed have that status for a reason. They're unemployable. Dependency issues, criminal records etc. Would the forces really want such people in the ranks ?

The Idea of conscription is out dated old fashioned and completely pointless

You need to keep in mind this is the 21st century... the days of handing a solder a weapon and shipping them off to the front are long gone...

In our modern world solders receive months if not years of advanced training... I'm retired from the US Marine Corps and I can tell you I changed MOS (Job's) 6 times and went to dozens of schools during my 20 years...

TO be sure all Armies everywhere in the world need good highly trained personal, but they want people committed not forced. I can assure you the best jobs and training will always good to those who understand that commitment and are willing to put in the time and effort...
But if you make someone do a task they never wanted to in the first place your not going to get a good result

At least while they would be in the forces they would be getting back into the habit of getting out of bed in the morning. A lot of jobless people just go to bed about 3am and get out of bed when they like. These people need to be motivated!

I still think that with all the various regiments in the army they could learn skills that could set them up for life. They would come out fitter physically and mentally and they would have a better attitude.

If the wage cost of the conscription was over whelming then I'd pay them a percentage of what the average soldier earns.

A lot of people on job seekers are on job seekers because they dont want to work. They are happy pretending to look for work or saying they have a bad back and living for free. Some of these people may have a criminal record or a history of drink abuse or drug abuse, but if they where pushed into doing something maybe they would come out with a different attitude.

Or at the very least, some people might find work to avoid being recruited.

reply to post by Damien _uk


You know its like when you were a kid and picked mates for a game...
You start with the best players the ones you leave sitting on the bench are those who never wanted to play in the first place.

Yes you can make them fight, especially when someones shooting at them. but you also get skying rocking AWOL and desertions rates too..

What you end up with is a numbers game. is the cost worth the risk. The US did have the draft for a very long time. Of course here we do something else now called "Recalled to Active duty"? that's when they take us old warhorses out of the pasture and throw us back on the lines

[edit on 18-3-2009 by DaddyBare]

haha old warhorses eh Conscription is probably a terrible idea now iv heard everybodies points of view but something needs to be done to get these people working.

There is loads of people out of work at the minute, a new study has put the job less total over 2 million in the UK. Im sure they all live in my town lol.

Im pretty sure that 2 million would be more than doubled if they added all the people with phoney illnesses to the gross figure.

Here we have a little known program called Job Corps
Job Corps web site

A shot blip about them reads
Job Corps is the nation's largest and most comprehensive residential, education and job training program for at-risk youth, ages 16 through 24. Since its inauguration in 1964, under the Economic Opportunity Act, Job Corps has provided more than 2 million disadvantaged young people with the integrated academic, vocational, and social skills training they need to gain independence and get quality, long-term jobs or further their education.

Obviously space is limited and people compete to get in but there are programs sadly there just poorly funded

[edit on 18-3-2009 by DaddyBare]

Hell would freeze over first, before I would allow myself to be dictated to by a government that is morally beneath me. The reason there is so many people out of work is because we have a government that is useless and incompetent. Things can only get worse as long as these moronic idiots remain in power. Bring on the Election, so that I can vote for the lesser of the three evils. New Labour Lib Dems Tories

No, conscription is definitely not the answer. My parents still talk about the draft during the Vietnam war era and about the friends and loved ones lost. It's one thing if a person volunteers to serve in the armed forces, it's quite another to force someone to serve.

I think people should be encouraged to do some voluntary work, I've been out of work for a while and have now started doing voluntary work. I did it for my own state of mind to be honest as i was getting bored and just felt the need to do something.

people dont like being told what to do, but some encouragement wouldn't go a miss.

I wouldn't have wanted conscription, so for me to prescribe it to others would be hypocritical.