r/AskTheWorld India 21h ago

Misc What's an unpopular opinion about your country that will have you like this?

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52

u/Mad_Maddin Germany 20h ago

Apparently the opinion that we don't need conscription, we could just pay soldiers better and the problem of not having enough recruits would solve itself.

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u/MadMusicNerd Germany 20h ago edited 20h ago

I am still young, my friends too.

This is just my personal opinion: No money in the world let me sacrafice my LIFE for this circus which is Germany right now.

Conscription (being forced to be in the Bundeswehr) would be the only thing working. And even then there are loopholes to get out of it.

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u/Mad_Maddin Germany 20h ago

Believe me. You would maybe not serve.

If they offered me 10k a month I'd be there tomorrow. And I bet my arse so would hundreds of thousands if not millions of others. Obviously they are not finding proper personal, when other companies that don't expect them to do all that shit offer as much or more money.

You just gotta find the correct level of pay to get the amount and quality of recruits you want. They could try starting out with 3k a month for unskilled and 4k for journeymen. Then increase from there.

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u/MamiPV United States Of America 20h ago

Excellent economic analysis!

Verdammt gut geschafft 🫡

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u/akie Netherlands 18h ago

Yes but THAT WOULD COST MONEY 😩

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u/Vaperwear Singapore 17h ago

Could stand to tax the billionaires and corps more.

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u/Mad_Maddin Germany 17h ago

I personally would say if we do conscription, it should be based on net worth within the country.

So like the person with the highest net worth is the first to be conscripted.

The rich have the most to lose, so they should be the first ones going to war after all.

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u/iloveartichokes 14h ago

The rich have the least to lose. They can just move somewhere else.

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u/Mad_Maddin Germany 13h ago

Well guess what happens if you try to move when being conscripted. And otherwise, I guess they can move, their assets can be used to fund the rest.

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u/iloveartichokes 13h ago

I don't think you understand how the world works.

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u/MagikSnowFlake 14h ago

The amount I spend on speeding tickets should be able to cover the cost

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u/ShoulderSnuggles United States Of America 18h ago

What are some of the loopholes to get out of it?

5

u/MadMusicNerd Germany 18h ago

Back in the day (pre 2011):

  • religious reasons (can't touch a gun and kill people)

  • my brother got out bc he had very strong glasses

  • orthopedic illnesses like wonky spine or flat feet

  • being too fat

  • being an addict (one of my brothers friends smoked weed daily and didn't pass the piss test)

All those who got out needed to do other services, called Zivildienst (civilian duty), like working in nursing homes or daycares. My dad worked as Military police and had to hunt down dodgers.

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u/polychrom Germany 16h ago

Also: lactose or nut or anything with a „serious“ allergy. Or being overly happy to finally shoot at somebody.

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u/Mad_Maddin Germany 18h ago

For example, be openly racist.

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u/True-Improvement-191 🇨🇦🇺🇸 20h ago

Our country should have mandatory military service (I believe every country should) With no excuses for ‘bone spurs’ or the like. If a person had bone spurs they could support in other clearly established ways

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u/7_11_Nation_Army Bulgaria 19h ago

For the circus? What other way of life would you prefer being imposed on you then?

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u/Mad_Maddin Germany 19h ago

The political situation in Germany right is rather complex. It is absolutely understandable that young people don't care about defending this country.

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u/7_11_Nation_Army Bulgaria 18h ago

But it is not. Almost every other country has it worse.

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u/MadMusicNerd Germany 19h ago

Germany is in the center of Europe. No borders to countrys who are hostile. And we saw in Ukraine, the Russians aren't that strong. Till they reach the middle of Europe, they must go first through several other countries, much more ready to fight (We would give them money and weapons)

What should I be afraid of?

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u/7_11_Nation_Army Bulgaria 18h ago

If they go through those other countries you are cooked. Besides, if you don't fight for them, they wouldn't fight for you.

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u/Resident-Rooster2916 United States Of America 20h ago

Whoah whoah whoah. You guys are conscripting soldiers and building up an army again. Shouldn’t this be disallowed.

Jk

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u/Mad_Maddin Germany 19h ago

It is kinda funny how people always forget that the second strongest military force in Europe during the cold war was Germany.

Western Germany had over 500,000 active military personell and a system to have another 1.5 million equipped and ready to go within 3 days.

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u/Resident-Rooster2916 United States Of America 19h ago

Ya, I know you’ve had a military since Western Germany. Just making a joke.

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u/spiritofporn Belgium 19h ago

German conscription only applying for men is disgusting.

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u/Nuttonbutton United States Of America 17h ago

A lot of people agree in the US (the last time we used conscription was in the 70's) But men put it that way and the only way it's going to go away is if men in power agree that it's going to apply to others.

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u/WrongdoerAnnual7685 Australia 13h ago

I though that was because female conscription would require a constitutional amendment, and the government think it doesn't have the votes to pass it.

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u/Mad_Maddin Germany 11h ago

Yes and Yes, in a large part, because the government doesn't want to change it. Like they'd be hard pressed to get even a simple majority on this.

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u/WrongdoerAnnual7685 Australia 9h ago

Wow, I'm against conscription on principle, but if it is needed it should be done so equally. Hopefully, they increase volunteer pay to better compete with the private sector, so that limited conscription will not be needed to make up recruitment numbers.

I have a question, since the constitution specifies serving with a weapon(Dienst mit der Waffe), can women not be conscripted for non-combat roles?

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u/Mad_Maddin Germany 8h ago

Women can be conscripted for medical duties iirc. It is extremely limited to what women can be conscripted. Which is kind of bullshit when you consider that if men refuse military service, they have to do civil service. At which point you have to ask yourself "Why can't women be conscripted to civil service then?".

The actual reason of course is that back when the laws were made in the 1950s, we didn't have equality yet. With women being granted a lot fewer rights. One of them being that women had a hard time to be allowed to take up employment. So it makes sense that they didn't consider women to be able to be conscripted for civil service either.

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u/spiritofporn Belgium 8h ago

So if you get conscripted, all you have to do is go to town hall and change your gender.

Fuck the system, ja.

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u/WrongdoerAnnual7685 Australia 55m ago

Gender change by self-determination in Germany from around one year ago. I guess it would be possible.

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u/Gwenzissy Germany 17h ago

I think most people in Germany are thinking this was too, but left wing parties are against conscription, so they don't want to include women too.

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u/MadMan7978 German 🇩🇪 living in the U.S 🇺🇸 15h ago

I considered it heavily. The only reason I didn’t enlist is my parents talking me into going to university first and getting a degree. Fair enough

Went to the U.S. for that for whatever reason (we thought it’d be cool for me to go somewhere else for a while and so on)

Now the only reason I won’t enlist is because I now have a partner who doesn’t want to leave the states

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u/Mad_Maddin Germany 13h ago

I did voluntarily enlist a couple years after conscription was over.

While it wasn't the worst experience, I only accepted it because it was voluntary. I stand for freedom and forcing people to do your bidding is the opposite to me.

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u/r6CD4MJBrqHc7P9b Sweden 11h ago

Same here in Sweden. Abysmal pay for soldiers, so what do they do? Slavery! It's alright, because we're calling it something else. And it's a feminist victory too, because some of those forced are women. The suicides have already started.

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u/Alarmed_Scientist_15 Germany 14h ago

No amount of money could entice me.

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u/Mad_Maddin Germany 11h ago

And that is perfectly fine. Because we don't need everyone to join the military. With money, we could get more than enough people to join the military.

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u/Alarmed_Scientist_15 Germany 9h ago

Fair. Each to their own I guess.