A lot of countries are implementing mandatory national service programs for all young adults, including non-military roles, like environmental conservation and community healthcare. To identify whether advantages or disadvantages prevail, let’s first identify the main reasons of serving to a country, and then analyze the exact pros and cons.
The primary and main reason of serving to a country – is contribution to the country development. If we imagined a country with no participation and involvement of people, it wouldn’t be a country. In fact – people is what forms a country. As people contribute, a country grows. So serving plays a crucial role in the country growth.
Governments demand young adults to serve, because this is the most optimal age to be involved in country’s activity, especially in physical-related areas, like military). Which brings us to the first disadvantage – serving at a young age. This is considered a drawback by many people. There could be countless arguments, but one of the most popular ones are: “black window” or “skipping time” – most adults believe that serving just wastes their time, which they could spend in a profitable way, or other arguments stemming from it – like missed opportunities, or losing track of time. On the other hand, the same drawback is a huge advantage and an opportunity for the government – people are involvet in government in a young and most efficient age.
The second and major argument is – mandatorines. Why is it made, so everyone must serve ? For instance, if some people could spend time educating, climbing up the career ladder, why would they spend time on a thing that doesn’t contribute to themselves ? This question has two sides – thus it only has two solutions. In case government keeps serving a necessity – a smarter addition would be making serving career or domain-related. Like mentioned in the question, governments include other areas except military over time – which partly solves the problem, so people could spend their time more meaningfully. But government could also make serving optional – and it would be a greater choice, except it’s not in favor of a government. But the choice is either balanced, or in favor of one of the sides (people or government). But making serving absolutely mandatory – is clearly a disadvantage.
In conclusion – to identify whether serving carries more advantages than disadvantages, we have to view this question from both sides. It entirely depends from which point of view we’re viewing this issue. Also the amount of advantages and disadvantages depends on the balance between government and people.