Below is a horrible idea that Barack Obama wants to implement. This is from his website.
The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.
National service is a great way to take people away from a position where they create value for society, like a job, to a place that has little to no value, like community service. You are paid to do a job because that job is valuable. Community service is achieved through volunteering because the service is not valuable enough for anyone to pay for it.
I would rather vote for a politician that urges everyone to make as much money for themselves as they can than one who urges everyone to volunteer as much as they can. The poor is much, much better off under the first system.
