Lets raise this issue, but only apply it to Britiain.

In Britiain there is somewhat a problem with binge-drinking and yougsters engaging in vandalism/thuggery/theivery and gangs.

Id like to put forward the National Service as a possible remedy to this problem. Here are the arguments:

Reasons For:
---------------

1. Increases health standards.
2. Decreases National Health Service expenditures.
3. Reduces Police expenditures.
4. Decreases criminal behaviour.
5. Further decreases Police expenditure.

Reasons Against:
-------------------

1. Slows down academic progress.
*counter*
In Britiain, it is already very quick compared to other countries such as Italy. So it this a valid con?
2. Costs in running the National Service programme.
3. Problem-solving philosophy may be incorrect to some (Trimming the branches and not attacking roots?).
4. What is the effect on the female population?
5. Loss of liberty.


Of course there may be other arguments for or against. I may have missed some. But i would like to question whether you think such a program would work as intended. Also, if you think the cost of running the thing could outweigh its cost-saving effects.

What do you think?

Not a great addition but:

I think that '3. Problem-solving philosophy may be incorrect to some'
really is a big against.
I'm not against the idea itself (reintegration, reeducation, ... ) but in the long run you won't solve the underlying problems (like poverty, low chances to begin with, high criminality in certain areas/populations, ...).

I also feel it will be like 'a last chance' for those youngsters, which will probably be a motivation to succeed (although i question if it's a 'good' motivation), but what happens with those that do fail?

I've seen a thing like this btw on tv, where young americans (most black) see the army as a 'last resort' kinda thing, as a way to get their life on the rails again, to be able to study. (often they're already in problems and they see it as their only way out)

So i'm not saying it's a bad idea, however i do feel that the underlying problems should be dealt with instead.

just send all the fuckers to the foreign legion. watched a 4 part kinda documentary on it a while back and if that don't sort 'em out, nothing will

In this day and age: if you're going to implement a military service, make women do it too. With the obvious exceptions for young mothers and whatnot, of course. But in general women start later with children and such these days, so I don't see any reason why an optional mandatory service wouldn't apply to women as well. Especially as they're a not to be underestimated part of the binge drinking group, afaik. I read something about young UK girls binge drinking being a rapidly growing group. Bleh.

I think a better idea would be to abandon the closing hours of most British pubs. Really, what you have now is ppl drinking heavily from the afternoon till closing time, just to get wasted in time. That is the biggest issue here. What happens is that you unleash a whole host of drunken morons at the same time all over the nation...no wonder. If you take a look at the European mainland (where there are no closing time restrictions): life standard is pretty much the same, beer is pretty much the same (not low-alcohol pissy beer but sturdy beer)...and there is no such problem. I think Germany has a higher beer/inhabitant ratio than the Uk and they don't suffer from binge-drinking mobs of suckers. It's not so much that ppl are less inclined to get wasted on the mainland, it's that they don't leave the pubs in throngs at the same hour. All pubs have different hours, often till morning light, so there's no diaspora of drunken morons nor the pressure to drink-drink-drink to get drunk in time.



Wahey. Anyhoo, did the UK ever have a mandatory military service? Belgium used to have a mandatory 1-year service for (nearly) all males, but they abandoned that a year or 2-3 before I was supposed to be doing it. Glorious joy. Well, it would have been alright, I probably would have made sargeant or something while there. But I'd probably have serious authority problems. The mere idea of a low-life low-ranking officer telling me what to do...like, really, if the army is your career and you can't make it past sarge.

any country that tried to force military service on me would immediately be left, plotted against, then nuked by me lol.

um... anyway... i dont know if we ever had a mandatory military service, apart from the obvious wartimes

I think mandatory military for everyone is a bad idea. And besides, you're putting rifles into the hands of these people. Do you really want to arm these kinds of hoodlums? I know the US Army has enough damn wannabe exgangsters in it...with a mandatory enrollment, or even just enrollment for people with criminal issues, that would be BAD.

Now, if you made them a little island unto themselves, I might be willing to go along with it. Only criminal-types go, and they go into their own little version (where they don't get handed rifles).

I fully agree with Rinox here. Those closing times for pubs are bad. If pubs close much later most people will get out of them in groups of two or three, and quite spread out.
I'm not for military service (unless your country is directly in danger / under attack), but if it is ever reinstated, women shouldn't be an exception.

@ Ox - You mentioned altering closing times for pubs. This does solve the binge-drink problem, but only to a minor extent. This solution alone would have a comparatively inferior effect to (what i think) is the main binge-drink problem. Just to make sure, im not entirely certain you meant to push this point as a serious solution. If this is the case, then you can dismiss what ive said.

@ Pev - Just for curiosities sake, why would you find National Service unnacceptable for yourself as a female? For the record: Im not entirely sure this is the right thing for females to do. Contrary to what Ox said. Because although women are getting into the drinking problem, i think national service is kinda tailored for males.

@ Arathorn - But do you think the reasons FOR are realistic?

Military training can get you more disciplined, so it may reduce moronic random acts of violence. But doing so will cost a lot of money too, and that's probably more expensive then the reduction in NHS and police costs.
While I think relaxing pub closing times is as good a solution.