A Proposal for Universal National Service

Every young person between the ages of 18 and 21 should provide 2 years of mandatory national service. Accepted service goes beyond military service and includes civilian service like teaching, or construction, or emergency response. Everyone serves. There are no exemptions for wealth or connections, or even handicaps; service would be matched to ability, not waived. This would be good for them, good for their country, and good for the world.

There are several main benefits:

• This duty partially offsets some of the rights citizens enjoy.
• Useful societal work is gained that may not be as well served in the marketplace.
• There is a meaningful mixing of people from diverse backgrounds, helping political unity.
• Kids get a gap year, in the work space, that makes them better students in higher ed.
• They may get training, but surely get a sense of service and accomplishment.

I am an American, so I will make this argument primarily in American terms, but examples of this exist in part in other countries of the world.

The Work

To satisfy the requirement, a young person can join the military, in all branches. They would get training in a skill, and be under military command. With the advent of such a program there could be an expansion of forces, such as coast guard, space force, and cyber force to accommodate and harness youthful energy and enthusiasm.

Civilian tasks could include emergency response work, helping out in the inevitable natural disasters, from providing food and health care, to construction of temporary housing.

Outdoor labor in our parks and vast government lands is badly needed. Much of the western US is owned by the government. Fuel reduction to reduce wild fires is long overdue. Like the CCC in the past, crews of young people could be clearing brush, making trails, serving in state and national parks.

The best way to learn is to teach. Recent high school graduates have much to teach younger kids. Tutoring is underappreciated and very effective. Teaching is needed in rural and city, and is also helpful overseas. An expansion of the Peace Corps is also national service.

Not all jobs would be manual labor. A great benefit to the country would be to scan, digitize, train, and organize historical data from local municipalities, overlooked archives, city governments, etc. This data is useful on its own and for model training towards a public AI. There is also the need to monitor, track, catalog wildlife species and ecosystems in order to manage our lands.

Public health outreach and education is also badly needed and can be helped by newly trained volunteers.

The Payoff

Mandatory service when you are 18-21 creates a productive gap in education that comes at the right time. Many college teachers observe that kids who return after a gap year or two are more motivated, more committed, and more likely to graduate than those who come directly from high school. The break gives perspective, and the experience in the world gives reasons and directions to pursue higher learning.

The jobs that are outdoors allow kids to get out of their heads and off their screens. Their bodies respond, and their minds follow. It’s not uncommon that people bond to the places they work in. The parks and lands benefit later as those kids become adults who still care about the land.

There may be nothing as effective in countering political polarization as working with people from vastly different childhoods. Neither colleges, nor workplaces, would mix people more thoroughly as mandatory service (no exceptions) would. The result would be life long friendships and admiration between adults who otherwise would not engage with each other.

The Costs

The main drawback of this scheme is the cost. Today there are about 18 million 18-21 year olds in the US. With each serving two years, about 9 million would be in service at any time. At roughly $50,000 each, that’s about $450 billion a year, about 60% of what the US spends on all military compensation, including veterans’ benefits. Giving them all a job would be like hiring 5% of the nation’s workforce.

Notably, some of these outdoor, healthcare, and data collecting tasks will likely be among the last jobs to be replaced by AI, so I would argue they will be well worth paying for.

There are other costs: corps labor would compete with paid workers, and compulsory civilian service would face a constitutional test the military draft never did. Both challenges are solvable, but real.

About 60 countries have some form of mandatory military service, mostly for males. Fewer than half offer a civilian option, usually structured as a conscientious objector alternative, a sort of second-best choice, and often deliberately longer than military service. I am aware of no country today that requires universal service of all young men and women with civilian options as equals.

I think the value of such a program would immediately pay off in better education results, less polarity, and more committed citizens, and it would compound over the years.