• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    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.

    Why do we need mandatory service when we can just offer a good salary in a citizens conversation corps that prioritizes high schoolers in hiring?

    • ravhall@discuss.online
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      2 months ago

      That works too. Although good salary is relative, because the average home price in my area is 550k, and you shouldn’t spend more than 25% of your pre-tax income one housing, so the salary would need to be at least 140k to be considered “good”

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Although good salary is relative

        At one point, way the fuck back in 2008, Obama toyed with the idea of a program to hire college seniors for a 100 hour period of community service that would pay $40/hr. This was pitched as a compromise with the Booker / Clinton “baby bond” proposal that suggested everyone simply get a $2500 bond at birth which would mature to $5000 by the time they were 18.

        $40/hr for a kid out of high school in 2008 was fucking phenomenal. So of course the idea never got past white papers.