In an op-ed peace in todays L.A. Times, titled "Forced servitude in America?" Goldberg finds fault with Obama:
In his speech on national service Wednesday at the University of Colorado, Obama promised that as president he would "set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year."
What's wrong with this? No need to bother American because Americans are already the most charitable people around:
Americans are vastly more generous with their time and their money than Europeans. According to social demographer Arthur C. Brooks, in 1995 (the last year international comparative data on giving was available), Americans gave 3 1/2 times as much money to charities and causes as the French, seven times more than the Germans and 14 times more than the Italians.
The fact that Americans are generous is great. Neither Obama nor anyone else advocating national service believes otherwise. Of course, much of this giving is in order to reduce taxes, which by the way, is due to government "meddling."
Other reasons may be, to help the sick, to support good old alma mater, to support a pet project, to give alms to a church, to have one's name on a building, to impress friends, etc. But regardless of specifc motivation, all charity is on a personal level: If you want to do it, you do it; if you don't want to do it, you don't. This is part of the philosophy of everybody for himself. The purpose of national service is to get our youth thinking about more than themselves. Participating in national service for the common good will make them better citizens.
Goldberg does not believe in the common good. He places "common good" in quotes. So, according to him, doing national service for the "common good" is slavery and charitable giving is freedom. He is wrong, so wrong that both candidates for president - one of them a long-standing conservative - disagree with him. To build a great country we need both personal and public giving
