Apparently there's a big "Service Conference" about to convene.

Let's look at "service":

Kennedy's oft-quoted speech spoke to involving young people in the furtherance of their country's ideals & spreading the "word", all while bolstering the young people's connection to their society. We have to remember what was going on at this particular time in the world. There was a cold war (simmering hot, just under the surface). The rest of the world was only 15 years past the devastation of WWII. The Nazis were still being rounded up.Black people were still in the grasp of Jim Crow. There was no medicare for the older folks, who were pretty much poverty-stricken as they aged out of the job force. There were millions of people who still did not have telephones, indoor plumbing...here in the US.

The sprawl of America had not really started yet, and inner cities were ripe for the chaos that would start in a few years.

Young people were rather insulated, as the prized-possessions of the families created after the war. Kennedy was speaking to those kids & teens..to inspire them for the FUTURE. He knew that young people would be the perfect ambassadors abroad, because they had not been abroad, killing..They would go out as a new generation of Americans, ready to show a new way to view America. he did not want the next wave of Americans venturing abroad, to be carrying weapons., He wanted their brainpower, enthusiasm & adventurous spirit to be exported abroad.

There's that kind of "service:..

I don't think that Kennedy expected this service to be in lieu of American aid to those countries. In fact that kind of service Vista (inside the US) and the Peace Corps meant MORE money would be spent...not less.

The "new" service seems to be an entirely different beast.

We expect teachers to spend their own money & time to supply what used to be considered normal operating expenses for any school

We expect nurses & doctors to give up their own off-time tending to the people our country seems uninterested in medically.

We expect ill people & their families to hold car washes & bake sales to help defray costs of lifesaving medical treatment provided by mega-million dollar corporate hospitals, and millionaire specialists.

We expect parents to take time off work (if necessary) to "volunteer" at their children's schools.

We expect students to accept mandatory volunteerism, as a part of their requirement-to-graduate.

I am NOT saying that volunteerism & service are bad. I am saying that when they SUBSTITUTE for services that should be (and are provided by most civilized nations) provided as a routine consequence of being a citizen. Many of these "services" are being outsourced to individuals so that the government can then re-direct the money they would have cost, to "other things"..Anyone want to venture a guess, what those might be?

They also mask a need to raise taxes to pay for the necessities. The money NOT spent on the continual increase in cost-to-provide services suddenly becomes "available" to use for taxcuts to the "friendlies", who immediately set out to demonize anyone who dares to expect a service for their tax money.