By Brian Schwartz
The state of Maryland requires community service as a requirement for high school graduation. This means that teens must serve others by law, and it is illegal for them not to do so, just as it is illegal for them not to attend a government approved school. Bill Clinton wants other state governments to follow Maryland's lead. This "community service" will teach young Americans "the joy and duty of serving," and that "Citizen service is the main way recognize that we are responsible for one another."
As the Institute for Justice (www.ij.org) notes on programs like Maryland's, "These programs trivialize volunteering by reducing it to yet another graduation requirement. This unintended consequence of mandatory volunteering sends a terrible message to young people and renders a devastating blow to the charitable spirit that flourishes so well in America." Further, the districts imposed their values on students by deeming politically-incorrect volunteer work unacceptable.
I will not deny that helping people is rewarding, as I enjoy doing this. But I do it only if I think I am promoting a value, while people like Clinton think I should do it because I have a duty to help others. This altruistic view implies that my life belongs to anyone whom I can help. By encouraging states to follow Maryland's lead, Clinton wants to teach children that their lives belong to the community, and enforce this ethic by law.
Can the President of the United States say that it is our duty to serve others, and sound noble and caring, while if he said the same to a bunch of women, he would be quite unpopular? Further, his ideas further ingrain the sense of entitlement to people in this country and discourages people from me responsible for their own lives.
Clinton insists on calling this community service "volunteer work." This is inaccurate because mandatory volunteer work is a contradiction in terms. Clinton also insists on calling his AmeriCorps volunteer work. Yet, as the Libertarian Party (http://www.lp.org/) wrote in its press release:
"Clinton boasted that 50,000 young people Ôserved their communities' through AmeriCorpsÑneglecting to add that they were paid a $7,400 annual salary, plus $9,450 worth of college expenses. That works out to a $7.27 per hour salary, plus medical benefits and free child care.
In all, it's been estimated that each AmeriCorps employee costs taxpayers $30,000 a year, once overhead, administrative costs, and promotional advertising are factored in."
Clinton is a master of DoubleSpeak: paid volunteer work is not volunteer work. It's called a job. Clinton's AmeriCorps is not volunteer work, it is extortion: First, the government makes college more expensive for students in two ways: it takes our parents' money in taxes, and inflates the cost of education by increasing its demand through interest free loans. So if you want we our money back, we can follow Clinton's orders and serve in AmeriCorps. And what choice to we have, as the $30K per year taken from tax payers decimates the private sector jobs college graduates can get.
Yes, but what if Americans do not volunteer? Well, as the Libertarian Party reports: "According to a 1993 survey, 48% of Americans volunteer every yearÑa whopping 80 million adults. In all, Americans contribute 19.5 billion hours of annual voluntary service." That's a lot more real volunteers than Clinton's indentured servants, and more, they do not cost tax payers anything.
People volunteer to do things because they are promoting their values. For example, Swarthmore students who participate in community service projects do not do this because it is their moral duty, I hope, but because they want to simply make the world a better place. In terms of responsibility, people who do real volunteer work are self-responsible: they are taking responsibility for achieving their goals. They are serving their own interests and promoting their own values by helping others. I appreciate people helping me when I know they enjoy it, and will not want people to help me out of some sort of duty. Members of communities being served, I would think, share my sentiments.
President Clinton wants to destroy the benevolence expressed in the volunteerism like that shown by Swarthmore studentsÑand replace with indentured servitude. Such a policy will surely destroy good will among people.