My Vision For America

[Vuk]

Vuk, not everybody has a childhood like yours. I don't want to sound disrespectful toward your father, so I won't say how your childhood comes across when posted like that. I believe children should be allowed to be children, and forced military training most certainly does not come into that. I was in the Army Cadets for two years and enjoyed it. Had I been forced into it, I have no doubt I would have rebelled against it. As for the tax analogy, children in America pay taxes?

As others have mentioned, your get out of all military conflicts, whilst building up the military comes across as bizarre.

Think what you want, but I had an extremely fun childhood that also gave me a real competitive edge over lots of people as I grew up. No, children should not be forced into the military, just like they should not be forced to work a job. But that does not mean that schooling should not prepare them for both.

I think a problem is that people are taking this as a serious proposal for change instead of a deep look into a person's psychology.

Actually, I take what I said as a serious proposal. I don't think it is something that could happen over night, but I do think that most of it could be implemented over time. Also, these are policies that I think would be ideal, but of course I realize that majority of them would be a long shot at best.

Don't agree with the views on education or military service.

IMO we have far too much focus on education. Education is a means, not an end. It should serve to give you the basic skills you need for life and set you up for being able to develop a role in the workforce. We need more apprenticeship schemes and the like and less pointless classes and exams. And this is coming from someone who just gradauted with a First and continues to hand out fried chicken for the living.

As for the military service, that's far too much of an invasion of the state into my life for my liking. And its also kind of pointless, the world we live in is not that violent. I guess the OP also said it has social benefits like reducing crime but that a) does not warrant such a harsh measure as taking up two years of my life and b) could be done without the military aspect.

These are all subjects that would make people intelligent, responsible citizens. It would also prepare them for just about any job out there with minimal additional training needed. No one likes school, but an uneducated populace is an unfree populace. If you want you freedom, then you need your education.
As far as the military service goes, it is (IMO) everyone's duty to defend their country when it is under attack. They need to be trained and ready to be able to do that. It would be less of an intrusion into people's lives than the mandatory-if-you-want-to-get-a-halfway-decent-job college set-up we have now. You wouldn't need to go to college anymore with my plans for a reformed education system. This would be two years instead of four, and you would get great personal benefits out of it.