This month, American newspapers are full of indignant stories about the country's discontented youth. Little wonder: now that school and college are out for the summer, millions of graduates are lodged aimlessly in the family home, struggling to find jobs.
Could one solution to this problem be a return of the compulsory military draft? Until recently, the idea would have been almost taboo in polite company, especially elite liberal circles. America has shied away from conscription since the disasters it suffered in the Vietnam war.
But last week, former US army general Stanley McChrystal floated precisely that proposal from the stage of the Aspen Ideas Festival (America's sunny, summertime version of the World Economic Forum in Davos). “I think we need a national service,” he told the elite business leaders, academics, politicians and media who had assembled amid the lush mountains of Colorado. “We need it at the conclusion of high school and university. I don't think that young people would fight [the draft] if it was seen to be fair.”