Institution of Obligatory National Service - Essay Example

The young men and women in the service, according to Tzu (2013), have little to do when there is no war.  Secondly, the national service costs billions of Euros to administer, the main reason the German government terminated its program as noted by Connolly (cited in Tzu, 2013, p. 2).

Those in support of the program note that the national service equips individuals with important life skills (Patten, 2014). The other argument in support of the service is that those from the national service can perform several useful tasks, “such as ambulance driving or firefighting” as stated by Buchanan (cited in Patten, 2014, p. 2). While it is beyond doubt that those who have gone through national service training can play different roles in society, especially during crises, there is no doubt that they may lack something to do when there is no crisis (Tzu, 2013). Yet again, while they can contribute to society through their skills, their net contribution may not be felt since they do not earn salaries and pay no taxes to the government.

In summary, the national service equips individuals with important life skills to the extent that they can perform different tasks. While this is the case, the cost of running the program may run into billions of Euros, which is quite prohibitive. In addition, those who have gone through the training may not have work to do when there is peace in the country to the extent that their net contribution to society may be minimal.