National Service: can we afford it?
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Authors
Debode, Douglas J.
Subjects
NA
Advisors
Henderson, David R.
Date of Issue
1987
Date
Publisher
Language
en_US
Abstract
This thesis estimates the costs, implicit as well as
explicit, of three National Service proposals. The three
proposals examined were: (1) a completely voluntary system
as presented by Donald Eberly, the Director of the National
Service Secretariat; (2) a "coercive-voluntary" model
developed by Richard Danzig and Peter Szanton in their book
"National Service: What Would it Mean?"; and (3) a mandatory system similar to the military draft of the Vietnam War
era. Costs included were: wages, medical benefits/coverage, GI Bill benefits, administrative costs, basic and
specialized training costs, operational costs and recruiting/advertising costs. Additionally, implicit (i.e.,
opportunity) costs were included in Models Two and Three.
Estimates were made only of the costs of the programs. The
assessment of potential benefits from an untested program is
even more problematic than the attempt to estimate economic
costs and is beyond the scope of this thesis.
This research indicates that previous estimates of the
costs of National Service programs may be underestimated by
several billion dollars. In all probability, these estimates were low due to the unintentional exclusion of certain
relevant costs, such as training and implicit costs. However, it is also possible that conservative assumptions
were used in many previous estimates to make national service more politically appealing. It was found that the
voluntary model of Eberly is the least costly, but is also
unrealistic. Greater expenditures in wages and benefits
would be necessary to provide enough incentives to enlist
sufficient volunteers. This thesis suggests a program that
provides better incentives for volunteers and presents a
more realistic cost of a voluntary system.
It is found that the term "National Service," as used
in this context, more accurately describes a job creation
program for lower income youth than a service program designed to attract youth from a cross-section of American
society.
Type
Thesis
Description
Series/Report No
Department
NA
Organization
NA
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
NA
Format
71 p.