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
So farmers should get free slave labor provided by me? Because nothing else in our system would change. No thanks lol
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!
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.
Would make sense, if it wasn't an exploitation scheme.
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.
Holy shit, Horseshoe Theory IS real
Older Hungarian rightists are begging Fidesz to reinvent mandatory labor because "the youth is lazy".
Silly "leftists" when Conservatives reinvent Maoism: 😱
Seriously though, horseshoe theory is nonsense.
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.
how to tell when someone has just had their 31st birthday
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.
"Make America Great Leap Forward Again"
Unfortunately, MAGLFA doesn't have the same ring to it...
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?
Over a decade ago, Obama proposed significantly expanding AmeriCorps, the tea party Republicans basically did everything they could to water down the expansion to amount to basically nothing.
I wonder if Twitter Republicans even know AmeriCorps exists...
Anyway, what we should actually do is mandate that everyone who earns double area median income for 3 years in a 5 year period has to spend 6 months working in a call center, retail, customer service, fast food.
Stop demonizing your neighbor. Demonize the 1%.
That income range still very much encompasses “normal” people who already pay a large share of income taxes.
Tax the super rich (both income and wealth), and redistribute that money via healthcare, education and social programs like UBI.
Stop demonizing your neighbor. Demonize the 1%.
Even more than the 1%, the 0.0001%. An excellent resource to illustrate this point:
I feel like everyone should go through this at least once. It’s eye-opening. Even people who we generally think of as crazy rich, like the average hedge fund manager, are just a drop of water in a pond compared to the ultra-wealthy.
I made it to the trillions but I clicked the paper billionair link and then had to restart. Fuck that haha
From there it just talks about a lot of things we could do with a fraction of the wealth of the wealthiest 400 Americans. Things like ending homelessness in America, ending malaria worldwide, and many others. By mildly inconveniencing 400 people, who would still all be absurdly wealthy billionaires even if 60% of their wealth were taken, we could dramatically improve the world.
To be fair, we can't get to higher taxes and social services without both mass labor organization and recent successful Socialist revolution, which is what allowed the New Deal to go through. Socialism is still a necessity, and that starts with organizing.
Yeah people don't get this. Many of those people may agree with you and were simply lucky enough to get comfortable in life. They are certainly not the main contributors to inequality in our society.
Didn't they try this already on like teenagers or college students or something? Didn't it go horribly wrong?
+3,000 student athletes in The A-Team. And yes it went horribly wrong. Some students started unionizing immediately.
"Then you go out in the field, and the first ray of sun comes over the horizon. The first ray. Everyone looked at each other, and said, 'What did we do?' The thermometer went up like in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. By 9 a.m., it was 110 degrees."
Garden gloves that the farmers gave the students to help them harvest lasted only four hours, because the cantaloupe's fine hairs made grabbing them feel like "picking up sandpaper."
The farmers sheltered them in "any kind of defunct housing," according to Carter — old Army barracks, rooms made from discarded wood, and even buildings used to intern Japanese-Americans during World War II.
I'm bookmarking this article. Probably gonna use it a lot these coming years.
Thank you!! I was trying to find this but was struggling to find an article about it.
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.