Well said, Squeers.

individual,

National Service - what?
The nature of modern society is predicated upon the notion and reality of passivity, both physical and psychological. we "sit" and passively absorb the media. We "sit" and watch cooking shows performed on TV...then waddle off to some franchised fast-food purveyor. Did you ever check out Jamie Oliver as he attempted to change the garbage fed to British school children at lunch?
We "sit" in capsules and glide through our environment. Kids don't even walk to school these days - and their "activities" have to be formally arranged.
Humans aren't designed to act like this. As a society, we overwhelmingly eat crap and sit on our arses - that's the upshot of human innovation in a capitalist paradigm.
And now they're attempting to make a profit from our societal dysfunction - way to go!

Social Impact Bonds are certainly becoming increasingly popular here in the UK, particularly with the Government which is very attracted by the proposition of transferring financial risk away from the Treasury. Some commentators question whether SIBs can be expensive in the long run as they have to pay dividends to investors and the costs of the financial intermediaries.

Readers who are interested in this subject can find more information here: http://www.russellwebster.com/2011/10/24/what-are-social-impact-bonds-or-show-me-the-money/

Thanks for your article, Mr Webster, which is more balanced than Cheryl Kernot's account--which is clearly more a "promotion" than an impartial or informative report.
I'm still concerned that the whole concept looks like another manifestation of that creeping disease called privatisation, part of the neoliberal agenda to disempower and delegitimise government--indeed democracy!--while breeding individual and public dependency.