German hospitals protest at plan to end national service (no more cheap labor)

Guardian ^ | 01/14/04 | Ben Aris

[Pikamax]

German hospitals protest at plan to end national service

Ben Aris in Berlin Wednesday January 14, 2004 The Guardian

Plans by German defence officials to phase out the country's mandatory national service have provoked an outcry from hospitals and old people's homes which rely on the cheap labour of conscientious objectors. The length of community service, which young Germans can choose if they do not want to serve in the armed forces, will be cut from 10 months to nine as a first step to abandoning national service completely in 2008, government officials said on Monday.

The defence minister, Peter Struck, also announced drastic cuts in military spending. The government hopes to save up to £18bn by cutting procurement, reducing troop strength and closing more than 100 bases.

Mr Struck said last year he wanted to cut the armed forces by 30,000, to 250,000 soldiers by 2010, as part of plans to switch to a professional army.

Hospitals and old people's homes reacted with alarm to the announcements. More than 90,000 young men choose the community service option every year, and 80% of them end up in hospitals, doing essential work such as driving ambulances. German charities are warning of "catastrophic" consequences for health care services if this cheap labour disappears.

Military reform has gone to the top of the agenda as Germany attempts to redefine its defence forces, turning them from a bulwark against Soviet attack to performing peacekeeping duties and intervening in foreign crises.

Residents in towns near military bases are also worried by the German cuts, as they follow closely on the heels of an announcement last week by a Pentagon spokesman, Major Paul Swiergosz, that tens of thousands of US troops would be withdrawn from the country. The troops will either be sent home or redeployed in less heavily regulated eastern European Nato countries.

According to reports the 70,000 US troops currently in the country will be cut to between 30,000 and 40,000 in the next two years.

Some US facilities, especially those supporting heavy armoured units, will be closed completely. Others, including the Ramstein air base and the US European command headquarters in Stuttgart, will remain with reduced personnel.

[cavtrooper21]

Sound like some "volk" are upset that the free lunch is not going to be free anymore...

Bummer.

[vpintheak]

As Bastiat said, "They have turned plunder into right." Listen to the theives cry!

[basil]

They're only a few years ahead of us in learning that socialized medicine simply doesn't work. We, or course, will have to learn the hard way, because we are headed now in the direction of "free" medical care for everyone.

[Prodigal Son]

It's funny the different takes on this.

On this thread, when the program is going to be axed, we'll see snide remarks about those who don't want the program to be cut. The free lunch thing, socialism etc. Implying that the correct perspective is to cut the program and the socialists be damned.

Yet on this other thread that addresses the same issue but from the military angle (it's all one program):

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1057375/posts

We see freepers damning the Germans for ending the program.

It's interesting how the way an article is headlined or worded can change what people think about any given issue.

[americanbychoice]

There is nothing "Free". You would stage protests if you had to pay what the Germans pay for "free Medicine".

[basil]

I once had to go to a doctor in Munich--It was a scary experience, to say the least. The worst of it was that I couldn't pay him, as he wasn't allowed to take any money--he just charged it to the friend I was visiting, and got his money from the government.