Most countries in the world have make programs that cause their citizens to serve as volunteers in both the public and the private sector. These programs are called national service whereby a person works for a certain number of hours either without salary or with salary that is less than the work done. In his article, what is wrong with National Service, Bill Winter, sees issues that are in the national service that have proved to be disadvantageous rather than advantageous both to the government and the society in general. These programs have mistakes that undermine their benefits to the society. While these programs have been used in the past as a way of providing service to the community, they have costed both the government and the society its time, resources and freedom of choice. I think this should not be allowed because it is unfare.
According to Winter (2004), while these programs are initiated as voluntary programs, most of them go through transformation until they are compulsory programs in the society. Winter (2004) says that many of these programs have been turned into compulsory programs with the law requiring that a person completes them or he/she be prosecuted for failing to fulfill his or her duty to the government and society as a whole. For example, why can a high school force me to serve in the community when I don’t want? This is not good at all. I think I cannot accept this at all. This is because I am a free citizen and the government or anything else should not make to do what I don’t want.
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On the other hand, Winter (2004) say that there is an element of extending the time that one is supposed to serve the community thus interfering with his personal life. For example, the entering volunteers into the armed forces has seen many of these volunteers serve for an extended period of time, with many of them servicing under the rules and regulations of the armed forces. These rules and regulations are hard. For example, once in the armed forces, one cannot distinguish between volunteers and other people who have joined the military because they like it. Both have to live under very harsh conditions. For example, in Korea, all man have to go to in the military for two years in very dangerous situations. One can die while doing something he or she do not like. For me this should not be allowed. It is bad for the government to do this to a person.
The price of supporting voluntary service or community service in society is very expensive. It should be noted that while these programs are supposed to be voluntary, most of them are paid services, and therefore, they use from the public coffers. This has increased spending with the tax being passed to the taxpayers. According to Winter (2004), from 1980s up to date, the Government of the United States of America has used $ 600 million dollars of public funds in voluntary/community service. This is not fantastic at all. It is not a good sign. On the other hand, the government has give support to charity organizations, causing over reliance of these organizations on government. The government has harsh situations and these organizations do not operate well because of this you know. I cannot accept this because it means I pay more tax to the government to pay charity organizations.
Therefore, while these programs have been used in the past as a way of giving service to the community, they have costed both the government and the society its time, money and freedom (Winter, 2004). National Service programs have been found to interfere with people’s lives thus risking their private live of choosing what they need to do in the society. Therefore, there is need for a look again at these programs and new ways of approach should be used to tackle the challenges that have arisen in the past on these programs. For example, the government and other institutions in the society should not make these services to be a must to everyone. Instead, the government should make a program whereby everyone who receives government support should serve in the national service because he/she has used the public resources.