Q. & A.
Questions? Contact
1. Why even introduce the World Service Corps legislation? It is too long a shot to have a Congressperson carry the legislation.
Many pieces of legislation originate with constituents. Corporate lobbyists draft innumerable pieces of legislation to benefit their clients. True persons, versus constitutionally debatable corporate persons, have every right to have their representatives carry legislation. Congressional reps are our employees.
If passage of this legislation is debatable, then have the debate begin. Debate forces thinking. Thinking can lead to understanding. Deeper understanding improves the nation and world.
2. We don’t need another big government program. Why start a new bureaucratic program?
This is structured as a public – non profit joint venture,
using existing organizations that have stellar service records to help more
Americans combat terror and ignorance by doing what American do best --- serve
at home and abroad. It does not start a
new, big government program. It expands
the solid, beneficial experiences American can live and learn within existing
do-good organizations. The WSC funnels
3.
The failure to implement a policy such as this decades ago is the reason we have humongous war costs, and this contributes to our soaring deficits. This is a long tern answer to reducing our future monetary and human costs, and it is immediately more cost effective than resorting to costly warfare.
By 2004 the yearly cost of maintaining each of our 1.4 million volunteer military just in the Defense Department budget touched $300,000. When the conservatively estimated war supplemental, off budget costs, and some of the veterans and social costs are added to the 2006 military budget, the annual costs of maintaining each of military personnel soars over $600,000 annually. See “It’s the economcy, stupid..” in Coverage section for detailed numbers.
The cost of maintaining a Peace Corps volunteer for a year is about ten percent (about $40,000 per year) of maintaining a military personnel, and there are no-post service social, medical, physiological, or educational costs, only benefits.
By 1970, when President Kennedy wanted one million Peace
Corps volunteers to be serving in the world, we had over 400,000 soldiers in
Changing the world through the Army or Maine Corps is bloody expensive. World Service Corps is cost effective and all but irrefutable. It is the means to reducing future costly expenditures. It is how you cost effectively build and rebuild nations.
4. We do enough for the world, and the world doesn’t appreciate us enough as it is. Why should we waste our time, energy, and money on helping more?
Much of the world sees our foreign aid and policies as manipulative and premised on American corporations earning and controlling their economies. Our service programs are not viewed in such a negative way. The WSC will send red blooded Americans, from red and blue states, to serve at home and abroad. They will not be viewed as corporatizers. They will not be giving handouts with string attached. They will help where help is needed. They will, in the proverbial sense, be helping people fish within their own cultures, not handing our American fish.
Although a dangerously increasing number of world citizens are disliking our policies, most world citizens still “like Americans.” We cannot allow ignorance and terrorist ideas to subvert and win the hearts and minds of the world citizens who “like Americans.”
Our best foreign policy lies in letting the world know the
true character of Americans doing service.
The WSC is the antidote to the terrorists spreading ignorance about
5.
Since Peace Corps volunteers will be an agency
that makes up part of the WSC international service, how many PCVs have and are
serving in troubled spots like
From 1961-67, 462 PCVs served in
From 1962-1979, 1,739 served in
From 1962-1976, 1,863 served in
PCVs were
never diplomatically placed in
In all of North Africa and the Middle East, they
have only served in
In the fourteen nations from
Today’s
Peace Corps has only 7,733 serving in 71 countries. .. (Since
1961 only 178,000 trainees and volunteers have served in 138 countries.)
If you want to win the hearts of the troubled world, do you think it might be helpful to work amidst them in their mean streets and arid fields?
Is it Christian to just wait till violence erupts against you and then just drop bombs?
Had we had a hundred thousand PCVs serving in these nations by now, as Kennedy envisioned, do you believe we would have lost about 2,000 American lives, unnumbered maimed and wounded, be looking at a conservatively covered $500 billion war bill over the last few years, and be looking forward to untold medical and social costs for our vets?
Peacefully
warring against the causes of terror is always much cheaper and healthier than
warring. The longer one puts off
peacefully warring, the more expensive becomes the later military cost.
6.
We shouldn’t even suggest peaceful, productive
national service, even if it would benefit
In the 2004 Congress a bill and resolution were introduced to resurrect and rebuild the Selective Service System (draft). an extra $28 million in funds was directed to revive Selective Service offices.
Legislation is already on the table in both the House and the Senate, in the form of twin bills SB 89 and HR 163, "in order to staff up for a protracted war on terrorism," writes Adam Stutz, from Project Censored. Meanwhile, the Selective Service System has received an extra $28 million in funds for this year's budget to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots nationwide and put "troops on the ground in 85% of all American high schools to make sure no one between 18-25 years old slips through the cracks. Schools cannot very easily claim conscientious objector status, by the way. "Buried deep in the 670 pages of the No Child Left Behind Act there is a provision which requires that public high schools give military recruiters access to facilities and also contact information for every student -- or else face a cutoff of federal aid," writes Connor Freff Cochran of AlterNet.
U.S. Preparing For Military Draft in Spring of 2005,
“Legislation in the works: Selective Service System already mobilizing,” May 6, 2004 Issue,
Utne Reader.
In 2005 the former Marine UNSCOM weapons
inspector
In mid-June 2004 the Selective Service offices
were told to be ready to be operational.
That (invading
Arms
Inspector Turned Peace Activist Says Get Ready for the Draft, Published on Saturday, March 19,
2005 by the Hudson Valley News (
If a military draft
returns, shouldn’t an alternative already be passed into law and working. The work of the WSC would make life easier
for the strong military by giving them fewer crisises
to face and thereby keeping their morale high.
We need a strong military. The
military needs a corps of peaceful, productive volunteers, so that their job is
clearer and safer.
----- under construction, not completed…
7.
How
many people currently volunteer on an annual basis for the organizations (e.g.,
Habitat for Humanity) that will be covered by this
bill?
Peace
Corps since its 1961 inception = 181,000 trained and served since its 1961
inception. Best year
1969 with about 15,000. Since
then budget and emphasis cut.
2006 =
7,800
Americorps
Headstart
60% of eligible pre-school children are in Head Start, and only 3% of eligible
infants and toddlers are in Early
Head Start. In
Head Start is for the poorest children 74% of Head Start families are at or below
the poverty level. These children are often the
farthest behind in learning to read and learning the alphabet.
Yet Head Start makes a
difference: in one year these students go from the 16th percentile in vocabulary
to almost the national norm.
Mikulski
Says Bush Head Start Budget Forces Local Communities to Make "Bad
Choices"
22-Jul-2003 CONTACT: Melissa
Schwartz
http://mikulski.senate.gov
President’s 2005 budget provides just enough money to allow
Head start to
reach a mere half of all eligible children.
Habitat
volunteers
8.
How
do the stipend/pay and benefits (e.g., educational) earned in the program
compare to those received by people volunteering for military service?
In 2006 Congressman Murtha has used $150,000 figure to estimate
signing/educational bonuses used to attract military recruits, which has been
increasingly difficult.
Depending
on what “kickers” one includes, military recruits are offered
from 20,000 to 40,000 to 90,000 to $162,000 in signing and educational bonuses
to volunteer.
ABC News: Army Offers Bigger Bonuses for
Enlistment January 22, 2006 | Get Your
Local News and Weather
Last year the Army fell 7,000 recruits short of its goal of 80,000 new troops, the largest recruiting shortfall in decades….
Last month Congress approved a doubling of Army signing
bonuses, meaning a new recruit could earn as much as $40,000 just for signing
on the dotted line. The amount is $20,000 for new
reservists. An active duty soldier with a hard-to-fill
job who meets all the right criteria could earn a staggering $90,000 for
re-enlisting…
Also, the Army will boost the amount of student loans it can
repay to $65,000. This amount, when combined with the
Montgomery GI Bill, will offer recruits up to $72,424 to pursue a higher
education…
Source: ABC News: Army Offers Bigger Bonuses for
Enlistment January 22, 2006 | Get Your Local News and Weather
9.
How
much will the program cost under the primary bill assuming the participation
rates the bill anticipates and including accrual for benefits as they are earned?
AWSC
full time working volunteers would serve through existing, established
organizations who already have much of the
infrastructure in place to place full time volunteers into effective
service. In some cases:
·
Ramping
up to handle more volunteers should not costs these organizations much since
much or most of their infrastructure is already in place.
·
There
would be some additional costs to handle the additional volunteers. Over the course of a few years
these additional per volunteer costs should fall as economies of scale settle
in. So in time the per
volunteer cost will not add much to their existing per volunteer costs.
·
In
many cases, assistance from domestic communities and foreign nations, who will
be grateful for the volunteers work, will be expected. and
may provide housing and other amenities that keep costs in check.
Half of
AWSC organizations are Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs).
·
Daily
living expenses of volunteers to these organizations would be borne by NGOs
thereby reducing those costs from federal responsibility.
·
Daily
living expense of volunteers choosing to work in the governmental organizations
would be a federal of state governmental cost.
Educational
investment bonus:
The
Federal government will be responsible for paying the cash readjustment
allowance as well as the promised educational/tuition bonus for completing two
years WSC service. Amounting to:
·
Two
years of community college tuition and fees which in 2004 was estimated
at $2,076 annually at public community college. (E:\World
Service\Research Downloads\AACC Community college Facts.htm )
·
Two
years of public college or university tuition and fees which
in 2004 averaged approximately $6,600 nationwide.
E:\World Service\Research Downloads\College
costs 4yr school spike - Oct_ 19, 2004.htm
·
Consequently,
the federal government would be responsible for an investment of approximately $17.200
in
Estimates
to support a full-time domestic or international serving volunteer range from
$20,000 to $40,000 (approximate annual cost to support a PCV today). When cost efficiencies are
melded with extra costs, a fair estimated gross estimated cost for an
AWSC volunteer annual cost is:
·
$30,000 per volunteer.
Estimating
that half of AWSC volunteers choose to serve in NGOs halves this annual daily
maintenance cost per volunteer to:
·
$15,000 per volunteer.
An readjustment allowance will be
given to each full-time volunteer who completes service that is equivalent to
that received by a Peace Corps volunteer.
In 2005, a PCV who completed two years of service received a cash readjustment
of about $6,500.
When
the readjustment cash allowance + Annual per volunteer living costs + Educational investment bonus
is totaled, the
amount of federal responsibility amounts to: ($15,000+$17,200 + $6,500 =
$38,700)
Depending
on how one views the value and importance of education, $17,200 of that
government expenditure on formally educating Americans may not be considered a
cost, but a long term investment in
·
$15,000
Depending
on how one values the education/service Americans
receive by serving in pockets of need and the:
ü
Cost
saving benefits and reduction in future domestic costs such service accrues to
local communities.
ü
Reductions
in international disdain, hatred, and ignorance such service does.
ü
Strong
likelihood that such service could erase the next trillions of dollar
expenditure another kind of
Then
the $15,000 annual volunteer maintenance cost might be consider minimal or
zero. If you believe such service and
investment benefits local and foreign needs, dependency on foreign aid,
military incursions, etc., and thereby reduces
·
Below
$15,000 and in some analysis amount to $0. per
volunteer cost and a net savings to our nation.
About a
half dozen states have Conservation Corps programs. (
Depending
on one’s perspective about the importance of repairing levies, improving
streams and trails, involving young in conservation and appropriate technology
projects, the added state costs will be
·
Nominal
or negligible state costs where CC programs already exist.
·
And
cause federal day-to-day costs to fall.
Increasing
participation in state conservation corps (as will participation in all the
other AWSC organizations) also gives states the abiloity
to better prepare for and more quickly recover from natural disasters that seem
to be increasing. Better preparation and
recovery reduces the economic costs of disasters. Quicker recovery cost effectively re-ignites
business and economic recovery, which reduces federal costs.
Implementing
the AWSC legislation may inspire more states to institute state conservations
corps, so that their states young people who volunteer to serve their state and
nation via conservation and appropriate technology work could benefit from the
federal educational bonuses. This would
reduce federal day-to-day costs and keep the educational bonuses
costs the same. In effect, this
would be another reduction to federal costs in implementing the AWSC program.
·
Slight reduction in federal costs.
How
many ot the AWSC volunteers
would choose to serve for one, two, or extend for a third year?
Using
the assumption that half would choose to serve for one year and half for two
years (of couse,
this could varyand we hope most do two years but until our crystal ball clears up or GAO
shows up this is merely a simplified estimate), the federal educational bonus
cost would be halved for half of the volunteers. So, after serving a year, the federal
education/tuitition investment payments would be $17.200/2 = $8,600
rather than $17 .200. After ramping up
to one million volunteers over the AWSC initial ramp up period of seven years,
the eight and ninth year and every year thereafter would see a cost reduction of
approximately:
·
$8,600,000,000 per year
·
Or
a reduction in educational investment/bonus of $8.600. for
each of approximately a half million volunteers.
If a quarter choose to serve on year the annual saving would be:
·
$4,300,000,000 per year.
Some
well-off baby boomers, retirees, etc. may decide not to take the bonuses they
have earned and instead choose to dedicate it to a community educational
scholarship fund or foundation or if they were deep-rooted believers in laissez
faire could choose to return it to the federal treasury. Donating it to others
education would strengthen the nation and reduce crime, causing a savings. Since few seem to live by often
expressed beliefs of pure volunteering and not accepting goernment investments, the savings here may be nominal.
·
Nominal
savings
The
three sources of financing provide further cost savings.
1.
Federal
Tax Revenues
2.
AWSC web site listing Low or Non-Taxpaying large
Corporations.
Using research from CTJ (Citizens for Tax Justice),
Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy ((ITEP). and government sources, which relying on public
informing, will asks these corporations what they will donate to underwriting,
without further tax deductions, to
reduce taxpayers contribution to funding AWSC.
Corporate Income Taxes in the Bush Years, released Sept. 22 by Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, finds 82 of 275 companies CTJ examined enjoyed at least one year in 2001–2003 in which they paid no federal income taxes yet received billions of dollars in outright tax rebates. In 2003 alone, 46 of the companies paid no federal income taxes and in some cases, received tax rebates.
The companies, all on the Fortune 500 list, were profitable
in each of the three years analyzed.
3.
AWSC web site listing the Forbes Richest.
This web site will list what Forbes Richest donate to underwrite the building of AWSC. Several billionaires and multimillionaires, from the likes of Gates, Buffet, Soros, Turner, Walmart family members, etc, might contribute to funding the cost of sending and investing in America’s best resources – its people – in order to build a safer, saner world in which business grows.
One should not discount the strong possibility that billions could be raised by funding mechanisms #2 & #3. Each year perhaps $1-4 billion could be raised via Funding Sources 2 & 3. Estimated reduction in federal costs:
· $1.000,000,000. – 4,000,000,000 federal cost reduction.
Summary
of Costs
Depending
on your perspective as to whether the costs of the AWSC lean heavily toward
long-term cost reducing “investments” or non-beneficial social and thereby “pure costs,” totaling the above cost/savings estimates
would place the annual per volunteer costs somewhere between $0 - $20,000 per
volunteer. Using the mid line as an
estimate puts the cost at:
·
$10,000
annual volunteer cost
By the
seventh year when the AWSC would have a full one million Americans serving this
estimated cost would be:
·
$10,000,000,000 per year.
Reducing
the $10 billion amount by the education investment bonuses that would be
forgone by those who are One year
volunteers reduces that annual cost by $4,300,000,000 per year to:
·
$5,700,000,000 per year.
Reducing
the $5.7 billion amount by the mid-range estimate of $2 billion of donated
funds received by low/non-tax paying corporations and mega wealthy brings this
total to:
·
$3,700,000
per year
This
$3.7 billion averages to about two weeks worth of Iraqi War costs over the
2004-2006 years.
Use the
AWSC to eliminate one war over the next generation and we give our economic and
human resources room to boom.
Putting
eight months of funding the present Iraq War into a lock box would fund the
AWSC for about 27 years.
Were a
detailed cost/benefit analysis done, the AWSC would cost even less than the
$3.7 billion annual estimate listed here.
Were
long term, hidden, supplemental, etc costs (see PLEF WSC showing cost per MP at
$600,000 annually) of the Iraq War included in these calculations it would take
only a few months of an Iraq War to cover all of the AWSC costs.
IF the
AWSC keeps us out of one war each generation or two, how does one enter the
savings in loved ones, blood, and dollars?