…do as the government tells you.
NOTE: After a huge outpouring of anger over this scheme of Obama’s to indoctrinate our youth, the language on his website has been changed to remove the words “require”. Now he will only “set a goal”.
Apparently Obama’s plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year (something usually reserved by the courts as a punishment for criminal offense) has been out for a while and has even been reported numerous times. Funny though, I haven’t heard anything about this on any of the debates or on any of the major news networks.
Amazingly on Digg and Reddit there are long and vociferous flame wars abounding. The people who hold that liberty is essential for America to function and do not believe in coerced labor are being told by the Obama-bots that they are being whiney:
- Ye Gods, look at all these lazy troglodytes who just want to suck off the American vein. And you call us on the Left indolent!
- you’re trying to reason with republican ideologues.
They are jumbo shrimp. They WANT more but don’t want to do anything for it. They are Patriots who want others to do the work. - And two hours a weekend for college kids to get more money for school. What a tragedy.
- We are talking about teenagers being required to do a modicum of community service IF they want to get a tax credit of $4,000 towards college.
Ok, let’s take a quick look at the concept here. Forced community service (per Obama’s choice of the word required) is a horrible precident to set no matter what the “pay off” is. Second, at a tax credit rate of $40/hour, does anyone else think this will have a significant impact on the economy?
2005 Fall enrollment in all colleges / universities was 17,487,475 students. At $4,000 each, that makes a total taxpayer burden of $69.95 billion. That’s a per year benefits cost that will raise (if trends from NCES data continue) faster than the current reported rate of inflation. The entire program will likely, due to administrative fees, infrastructure spending, and government beauracracy be closer to $125 billion.
$70-125 billion isn’t the only cost though. Industry will need to open up more positions for those workers to volunteer their time. Obama advocates letting these people volunteer in hospitals, so how many skilled nurses will lose their jobs because the Shannon Hospital now has to field Angelo State’s 6,155 students looking to perform their mandatory services?
San Angelo is already a small town and finding a good paying job is difficult with unemployement on the rise, but if all of these students, are forced to perform labor that the government is paying for, the economy will have to shuck an additional 300 jobs just to fit in the required hours. That’s not including the 5,939 SAISD students that will be looking to put in their mandated 50 hours a year. We still haven’t looked at all of the surrounding schools.
This is not free labor for the economy and it is not free money for college. That labor is being paid for by the tax dollars you pay every April 15th and that college money is coming out of the pockets of all of the people who still have a good job when this goes into effect.
If you think this is something you don’t have to worry about because you are not in school and you do not have kids, keep reeding down Obama’s plan. He wants to increase the “opportunities” for seniors to volunteer their golden years to the state as well. Why not, if the democrats succeed in seizing your 401k‘s, your only option will be which side of the soup kitchen line you are on. You can either wait in line for your bowl of broth or you can be the one passing it out. Everyone knows that the workers get the best food.
–edited
this was pointed out in a post at Ron Paul Forums
A $4,000 tax credit for community services implies you already worked for the original $4,000, which they have now stolen from you.
Now they are proposing to give back the original $4,000 but only if you work for the same money a second time!
Someone in this thread calculated this to be $40.00/hour for 100 hours of “service”. But in reality you are working for free just to recover your own property.