My views on policy are driven by two assumptions you apparently do not share:
1.
Human potential is largely elastic. Trite as it may sound, I believe very few people are truly "born stupid", and I believe that social conditions are the primary determinant of human potential. Therefore, I believe that your conviction that American public high schools provide good fundamental skills to anyone "who isn't stupid" vacillates, and moreover, I don't believe they even do so at the very low level of potential that their student bodies already have. I believe that the general stupidity of university students and the dismally low production of substantial bachelors in America today (compared to China, India and the EU) are testament to that.
Therefore, my goal is to increase human potential and do more with less. This sounds lofty, but such was the original goal of traditional classical and 3R education, and it largely succeeded.
2.
Conscription is the best way to prevent wars from occurring in the first place. The Israelis may never have made peace, but at least they've avoided large-scale wars ever since the Lebanon fiasco; Vietnam was effective at keeping the peace until a new generation - and the end of conscription - started the Iraq War; WWI was a strong enough deterrent for the Europeans that they were very reluctant to go to war 20 years later, and the hard lesson has kept them at peace ever since.
Tuhl, what's your premise for opposing conscription? What if the conscripts were sent to the Navy?
Azelma wrote:
I think this would all be fixed by mass sterilization. Keep everyone who is smart, and prevent anyone who is an idiot from reproducing.
I believe that people with long criminal histories, history of drug abuse, or more than three children should be sterilized.
