[speaker001:] oh sure I guess this sort of relevant for me because I'm a college student so you know I would have been affected by it you know a couple years ago I guess probably or after I graduate I don't know how it would be set up um I have sort of mixed feelings about the whole thing I mean I think it would sort of be uh sort of a bonding experience in a sense for people in the country and the you know people of of uh sort of all different uh
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] you know socioeconomic racial uh you know geographic even uh you know groups who would be mixed together and would sort of work together which I think would be a positive thing
[speaker002:] that would be a good coming of age experience
[speaker001:] yeah I mean I you know I think I think that that that would be a very probably the most positive part of it and you know it's also good to do uh to do volunteer work but on the other side I sort of you know wonder whether or not the government uh would run a program like this intelligently I mean
[speaker002:] yeah that's a really big problem and that's my main objection to something like that today looking at uh the track record on um you know responsible management I'd really have to say that I think it'd be guaranteed that the government would have a real problem
[speaker001:] yeah I mean the for example the Peace Corps has been a real success I think but the problem with that is that uh you you know it's a it's a small program and I don't know whether they could find worthwhile work um for everyone in the country sort of uh and also you know and still still manage it well I think they might be tempted for example to to not spend as much money as they should I mean they'd say look we have all this free labor let's not spend any money and so they would end up using people and their talents very inefficiently
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah yeah that is a big problem especially with organizations get bigger and bigger but there are a lot of little little problems like uh illiteracy
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] uh some other things that could stand having some manpower thrown at it
[speaker001:] yeah I mean I think yeah again if it if the if it was used efficiently and people you know worked on on real problems as opposed to just sort of make work then uh I think it could have very positive impact
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] um I just I haven't seen I haven't seen any of the detailed proposals for that I don't have you
[speaker002:] no I have no idea
[speaker001:] I mean I know people sort of floated the idea around but um I don't really know that much about it
[speaker002:] in the early eighties um for economic reasons and wanting money to go to school I went into the Marine Corps for four years and the mismanagement and the waste there was really disgusting totally really disturbing remember uh the first year that I paid a thousand dollars in federal income tax I watched that thousand dollars wasted that day
[speaker001:] hm
[speaker002:] there were some radios that um had been sitting on a shelf and they had some schedule or every eight months they had to be checked whether they were used or not and that's a practical idea but before I left I saw those very same radios rotate through again and they'd been through many times before  items that have been contracted out and paid for and that that in the end hadn't been built to specifications all kinds of stuff like that that was really disturbing
[speaker001:] hm
[speaker002:] for you know a big organization like that that a lot of people go off and do the kind of coming of age thing as well
[speaker001:] yeah and the part of the problem I mean even even I think probably a little bit of the problem with the military is that you know people only stay for a few years a lot of the people and so there's not
[speaker002:] yeah and a lot of them want out because it's so disgusting
[speaker001:] yeah and there but there's no sort of continuity to it I mean you don't have people that sort of feel responsible for uh you know the area they're working or whatever I think you'd have that problem even worse if people were only in for a year
[speaker002:] yeah a year's too short for any kind of continuity you're absolutely right
[speaker001:] and they probably wouldn't yeah and they and they probably wouldn't hire enough permanent personnel to really you know make the glue to keep the whole thing functioning well um so I yeah I I don't know I mean I I think if if it could be made to work well it would be a good idea if it would just be sort of a giant waste of people's time then I think it would be you know exactly that a waste of time and money
[speaker002:] yeah I wish our generation had better memory of things like the uh the New Deal and all the things that went on then when Roosevelt had uh all kinds of people working in they were getting paid but it was a uh you know building highways and stuff like that
[speaker001:] yeah I yeah I do think I mean I do think that's that's one part of it you would have to pay people I mean
[speaker002:] yep absolutely
[speaker001:] and either that or you know sort of like the military I mean the military doesn't pay people very much but you know they provide housing or whatever I mean
[speaker002:] yeah there's got to be enough compensation for you to survive for a year
[speaker001:] yeah you've got to be able to you know to pay people to live more or less I mean you can't expect them
[speaker002:] yeah this isn't the ancient Soviet army where you if you have the money you go in
[speaker001:] yeah yeah you need you need to uh you need to provide a way for people to live so for that reason alone it would be it would be expensive um and so maybe that's almost one of the big drawbacks to it
[speaker002:] yeah that and especially with the the things uh money running the way it is today and the federal