Military Service - Should It Be Involuntary

Critical Thinking Paper

As of right now, in the United States military service is voluntary. It is a system that works and may continuing working without ever changing. Just because it “works” though doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best or most beneficial system we have in place for employing our military.

We are going through an economic depression. Class warfare has come into the forefront with movements like the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street. Many people are out of work. Some of those people possess degrees from technical schools to medical schools. Without jobs these graduates have no means to pay back the large amount of debt they have accumulated in student loans. What needs to happen to alleviate this problem?

The US could make military service a two year requirement for all high school graduates, and, in return, for their service they will have earned (emphasis on the word “earned”) a free college education. This would solve the problem of people suffering excessive amounts of debt because they sought out a higher education. Plus, they will also have the benefits of service like a social-connectedness to the military community, discipline, professional development and the opportunity to achieve goals that would otherwise be impossible for them to reach without military service.

The majority of people entering service join between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six (Nesbit & Reingold, 2011). During that age range a person is going from adolescence to adulthood (Nesbit & Reingold, 2011). The person is given the right to vote, bear arms, drink and responsibilities of citizenship (Nesbit & Reingold, 2011).

Military service can be class equalizer in that it allows people who otherwise would not have the financial means to attend college, have that opportunity afforded to them through the benefits offered for their service (Maclean, 2006). The military provides greater opportunity for higher education and career development for youth constrained by lower social class or educational problems (Elder, Wang, Spence, Adkins, & Brown, 2010).