Anytime I’ve done some world building in my head for the great human empire :tm: it involves some sort of rotational labor period in each citizens early 20’s to give them exposure to a few different styles of work
It’s a nice way to give back to the community while also getting to see how the rest of the world lives
I’m sure there’s flaws with it but sounds a hell of a lot better than what we have now
I genuinely believe everyone should serve some sort of customer service role at least once in their life.
Except the American response to this would be to be extra shitty to retail workers since customers were shitty to them during their tour.
Yeah…I thought that as soon as I hit Enter.
That’s not how walking a mile in someone else’s shoes work. It’s the opposite.
Many Americans believe that the new guys have to suffer, like they had to, and that it’s the suffering that unites us. Many don’t seem to be ok with being the last ones that suffer so the next don’t have to, which is seen as unfair. At least that’s been my experience living over here.
That’s a really unfortunate philosophy because at best it guarantees things never improve
Oh yeah, it’s very unfortunate, specially considering that saying about planting trees whose shade we will never enjoy.
That’s not how it should work, but it does. It’s a conservative thing to lack empathy. They struggled 20 years ago, so 1. It must be the same exact struggle and 2. Instead of making life better for all, they’ll actively contribute to maintaining shitty life for these “entry” people because that’s apparently just how it works.
They want $15/hr for flipping burgers? I only got $4! (inflation is meaningless, intangible, and not calculable)
They want more savings and less money? Stop buying coffee! (bespoke coffee has tracked way lower than inflation, making daily Starbucks pretty insignificant compared to rent)
They want more respect in customer service? Why, I dealt with all kinds of bullshit! (as demonstrated by their shitty attitude, with less working hours, better benefits, lower population density, less stripped work force, local management support, and a higher percentage of people speaking the common language)
It’s not walking a mile in their shoes, to them. It’s walking in very different shoes and assuming everyone’s shoes are the same. Just look at any meth overdose death story when it’s a nice white girl. She just made a mistake, or got tricked, or was down on hard times. If the case looks like their own daughter, there’s empathy. Anyone else? Victim’s fault.
It’s more like, “I had to walk a mile so everyone else should have to!”
Lol have you heard of hazing??
What is this, academia?
I’ve had similar thoughts. Maybe not a rotation, but a compulsory period of service following high school that where people can select from a variety of public service assignments.
Compulsory service exists in many parts of the world and it is rarely good.
Forcing people to do work they don’t want to do leads to very unproductive environments that are also very open to abuse. Being forced by law to do the work has a tendency to create super unhealthy power dynamics.
Likewise, I think 2 years of public service or military should be compulsory. The truth is we do need a defense force given the world, but it’d also be nice to have americorps or something expanded to fit the service option. Make military service more enticing than the other, I don’t care, but provide room and board, and a spending allowance at the very least for both.
Great, I would love to have some free research assistants! Oh wait, these plans invariably only concern manual labor (real work TM).
I think if you could opt out of you really really didn’t want to do a particular job then it would be fine. Maybe if it’s a job that a lot of people dislike, like sanitation, you could provide an incentive to make it worthwhile - like you get the next season off.
Well I imagine it like high school electives. You get to pick from a selection and go through 3 or 4 until you’re ready to settle one some sort of career
What’s the equivalent today? Volunteering? Summer jobs?
Military service
community theatre and improv comedy
Americorps and the peace corp are a thing, but I’ll admit, I’m not sure how much of a thing?
“Make America Great Leap Forward Again”
I for one will be sowing all my seed incredibly close together, the plants will grow stronger together. Also all birds are now counter revolutionary, get out your noisiest banging pans my dudes.
Also, how do I invest in pig iron futures?
Unfortunately, MAGLFA doesn’t have the same ring to it…
Holy shit, Horseshoe Theory IS real
Silly “leftists” when Conservatives reinvent Maoism: 😱
Seriously though, horseshoe theory is nonsense.
Older Hungarian rightists are begging Fidesz to reinvent mandatory labor because “the youth is lazy”.
Didn’t they try this already on like teenagers or college students or something? Didn’t it go horribly wrong?
Turns out that the “Great Leap Forward” is actually circular.
Maoism is a conservative doctrine tbf
Mao is turning in his grave over this misappropriation. If Maoists read Mao’s Oppose Book Worship, they wouldn’t be Maoists.
True, but labor rotation is also common in anarchist communities
It does make sense and the issue here isn’t communal service periods but for making it only the young which “by chance” makes it so almost everyone who had any hand in it wouldn’t have to do it ever.
If it were every citizen had to do some form of labor for some period I don’t think anyone would have much of an argument.
And in Marxist circles as well.
Yeah, can’t wait to see what a bunch of bored teenagers and twenty somethings will do to our food supply after the first couple of seasons fucking around. Forced labor also doesn’t mean quality labor.
Authoritarians never learn that forcing people to act like they want doesn’t work.
I imagine it would be similar to the authoritarian practice of forcing teenagers to attend school: it really depends upon how it is organized and executed with additional variations in response based upon the individual.
It sounds better than forced military service.
The thing about forced labor is that quantity is its own quality.
You can also use certain government controlled documents as an incentive. For instance, it was common in the Soviet Union to use agricultural service as a requisite for graduation.
When we still had mandatory military service in Germany, one could alternatively choose to work in social services for 1-1,5 years. I worked a year in a hospital as an assistance nurse. Others worked in youth centers, community center or retirement homes. That year was not a pleasant one, as Zivis (thats what we were called) got exploited by the hospital stuff (always getting the worst shifts, always getting the shitty jobs, being used for jobs we were not qualified to do and so on).
Despite that I honestly think it was worth it. It helped to find oneself to do something different before starting university and it also helped to improve social and medical services.
The only real criticism I have is the aforementioned exploitation. There should have been better mechanisms in place to prevent this. And maybe the payment should have been a little better. I think we got ~8€/calender day plus free board and lodging; this wasn’t great.
Before 1989 there was also a third option: move to West Berlin!
Yeah, we should go back to an agricultural economy, like 200 years ago!
The U.S. government tried to get rid of immigrants before and replace them with American high school student athletes and most of them quit https://www.kvpr.org/2018-08-23/when-the-u-s-government-tried-to-replace-migrant-farmworkers-with-high-schoolers
I honestly unironically support it. Lots of people should go touch some grass sometimes. It gives you some movement, builds an understanding for where our food “really comes from”, and connects people in a way similar to the military, but less targeted on warfare.
The only problem is the exploitative angle of the whole thing. They do underpaid work, but the farm owning corporation gets to keep the profits.
Sounds good. Too bad the rich and politically powerful will be able to dodge, just like they dodge the draft.
Would’ve done me a lot of good when I was young that’s for sure.
You can be an exploited, underpaid and overworked farm laborer pretty easily if that’s something you want.
Would make sense, if it wasn’t an exploitation scheme.
Great idea from Soviet Union. Just ask them, how this turned out.
Pretty sure the quota system and the complete govt disregard for ag-science was to blame, and not the Labor force for that one.
With Trump’s cabinet picks, the US can get the complete government disregard for agricultural science too.
You are right. The government disregard for anything contributed largely for the demise of the union.
However, I am fortunate enough to never experience this, but my parents had to participate in kolkhozes and it was terrible.
I guess, what I am trying to say is, MAGA would not appreciate such an agricultural system.
So farmers should get free slave labor provided by me? Because nothing else in our system would change. No thanks lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCF2RdtLMNQ
Against me! - Those Anarcho Punks Are Mysterious
Wrong thread, sorry.
