Well at least young people have a choice, between mining and killing people. Lets face it, the music these days sounds like a jaw crusher, and the drugs make you just want to kill kill kill. Of course, I can have a laugh about such ideas both due to their inanity and my age, which is kind of cool. I'm not old enough to write cranky letters to the editor about "the youth of today" or the price of a wheelbarrow full of potatoes during the war.

Sigh, Individual;
"Can anyone (academic fruitcakes excepted) put up an argument against the validity of making individuals accepting responsibility for their actions ?"
This attitude suggests absolutely zero intent to actually check or listen to academic or generally more factual studies on young delinquency and crime, but prefer to take it for granted that overall, the youth of today have abandoned all morals and are running amok.

And I've told you, about three times, it AINT. Stop buying into Today Tonight and try some research- including to actually going anywhere you might run into teenagers and see for yourself. The vast majority of this target group you INSIST need help are in fact, largely willing AND autonomously active to get jobs, looking after themselves and living responsibly with intent to study or pursue a trade. Those that don't come from family backgrounds that were already what you have described- and even the majority of those from such backgrounds gradually aim for the more positive standards anyway.

And to answer the question of why our defense forces don't run amok after being trained to kill- our defense forces are high-quality and low-number for a REASON- all recruits are quizzed and scanned to ensure only those with high mental competence and stability are chosen- the EXACT opposite of the delinquents some keep insisting need to be taught the same.

Sorry, this whole thing is getting silly- so many demands based on unfounded assumptions that even the vaguest research or asking relevant persons would disprove.

academic or generally more factual studies .
King Hazza,
Don't you realise that most of the social problems we have are due to academic experts' philosophies ? It's academics' recommendations that are always implemented not blue collar workers'. When have you ever seen blue collar workers' or self employed peoples' recommendation implemented ? It's always academic experts that just as ignorant bureaucrats listen to, never people who know ! Our social problems are a direct result of this. A compulsory exposure to responsibility will reduce the incidence of this idiocy. Just imagine how much an ignorant academic could benefit from such a learning curve.
May I suggest we get a group of unemployed & put them to work in any field with labour shortage & study the result of that. You'd get a real result not just a theory. The outcome would be that they will have spent time doing something they don't like but not wasted that time learning nothing.

I agree, Hazza. This seems like a half-baked solution to a problem that doesn't really exist, except in small pockets of disadvantage. I live in the bush, and the teenagers I know and encounter in my community are virtually all either studying or working. Where I live there isn't really a shortage of unskilled and seasonal work, but what are noticeably absent are apprenticeships and jobs with a career path.

My late teen son lives in Brisbane, where he goes to uni and works part-time - as do virtually all of his friends. They are responsible young people who don't do drugs and tend to only drink socially, and have very active social lives that involve everything from sport to theatre to role-playing games.

This proposal seems to be more of a vehicle for individual to express his antipathy towards "academics" and the young people he encounters, rather than any kind of coherent program to improve young people's responsible participation in society.

Individual's idea (a boring refrain) comes straight out of establishment. The initiator of this thread is not conversant with the possibility that this world could be other than it is. He doesn't realise that the world we're born into is not some divine plan, God-made and inevitably capitalist. He just wants to feed the system, the best of all possible worlds. He has no comprehension that some people see beyond an utterly catered life. When he leaves this world, it'll be, for him, like he was leaving a restaurant; he'll puff himself up and pronounce ponderously on the plumb pudding and the pusilanimous poltroon proffering profiteroles: "a stint in the army would sort him out!".
National service is despicable. If there was a just cause, the men and women of every generation (including myself) would rally round. But the only just cause at the moment is national-examination and reform, for which national service would be a convenient tourniquet. The poltroon in the restaurant would no doubt make an excellent chocolate soldier, whom we could use to celebrate the century to come, and inspire the next generation of fodder.

to express his antipathy towards "academics"
CJ Morgan,
You've just floored me ! What no accusation of racism ? You're slipping ! Surely there must be some racist element in my post ?
As per your usual standard you're contradicting yourself again with this line in your reply. "rather than any kind of coherent program to improve young people's responsible participation in society". What on God's earth have we been debating about ? To improve young peoples' participation in society !
Call it antipathy or whatever else but can you give me just one (1) instance where a policy proposed by a working background "expert" has been implemented ?
Squeers,
You're most welcome to pay more taxes to keep supporting those who feel they're too special to have to pull their own weight.
It saddens me to have to defend a commitment to decency on this special day.