Three million Americans graduated this year into the worst entry-level job market in two decades. Graduate unemployment is running higher than it did at the peak of the 2008 financial crisis, and AI is quietly eating the exact tasks those first jobs used to be made of. Washington is floating the usual answers, universal basic income, federal job guarantees, retraining. But there is one old idea that speaks to all three crises at once, and it keeps coming back: national service. Mike and Neal make the case that the economic crisis (AI gutting entry-level work), the social crisis (29 percent of Gen Z report feeling isolated, versus 6 percent of boomers), and the civic crisis (a 250th anniversary almost nobody feels patriotic about) all point to the same fix. Let an 18-year-old come out of high school and serve, military, conservation, teaching, the energy build-out, their choice, and the country gets something real back while they get a start. Then they hit the hard part. Roughly 80 percent of Americans support national service, including a majority of Trump voters. The second you make it mandatory, that coalition collapses. Mike argues for a mandatory version with shared sacrifice across every class, because right now the wealthy and well connected never have skin in the game. Neal pushes back: voluntary, yes, but make every path count. They work through the real objections too, cost, government execution, displacement of private industry, and land on why none of them are fatal. The founder and operator angle runs underneath all of it: there is a staggering amount this country needs built and is not building. High speed rail, EV charging, renewable capacity, wildland firefighting crews, shipyards, munitions lines, low-cost drones, coastline and infrastructure repair. A national service cadre is one way to actually get after it. And there is a live political opening here, since most voters now believe the government has no plan to protect workers from AI. The hosts close on what should happen instead of another decade of nothing: a candidate who runs on this in the 2028 cycle, with incentives strong enough to pull in every income bracket, not just the kids who needed the paycheck. Goods, bads, and others: Mike likes that Australia looks to have hit peak emissions (down 2.1 percent, with EVs near 20 percent of the market) and is wary of the SpaceX IPO and its eye-watering revenue multiple. Neal cheers IBM tripling entry-level hiring while everyone else zags, flags Ebola getting ignored after the USAID cuts, and sits with the tech industry now drawing 273 applications per internship. Plus a mailbag on coal, our Canadian listeners, and the correct way to dress a hot dog. Got a take? Email us: hardpoints.show@gmail.com Follow Hardpoints wherever you get your podcasts.
