The requirements for running for public office are outlined in the US Constitution, state constitutions, and city and other municipal charters. A requirement that people will have to have successfully completed public service to run would require amending all of them. Holding some future benefit like a guaranteed income over teenagers to make them join won’t work because the wealthy won’t care and teenagers are not known for looking to the future. Will religious services be provided for those that require them like in the military, or will religious people get a pass on the whole thing?

Really John, you are talking about making kids live in barracks or tents like the original CCC for two years. As a long time high school teacher, I have to say that managing those kids, and they will be kids, would be incomprehensible to me. Will there be bed checks at night like in prison? You will not be able to segregate them by gender so look for a lot of drama in that respect, and there will be troublemakers among those who don’t want to be there. If there are fights between members, will they be resolved using local law enforcement and courts, or will the combatants just be moved somewhere else so they can fight there? The military works because they have rigid discipline enforced by the UCMJ, and many of the higher ranking service members are in it for a career. College works because the students are self selected, and they are PAYING to be in college. If a Green CCC member decides that they are going to smoke weed and play video games on their I-phone every day instead of pouring concrete, what are you going to do with them without locking them up? Kick them out so they can go back to living in air conditioning?

We are not building cities for the future by the way, since there are already cities laid out, some of them since the 18th Century. The rub is that you have to work around what is there since most of the land is privately owned and occupied. That’s why building new infrastructure is so difficult. Everyone is not on the same page, and to make them get on the same page would require force and that is a slippery slope since they can use force too.