If Only You'd Ask

Steve Barr reports today on a new survey showing that a third of younger Americans would give a "great deal of consideration" to working for government, if only their parents would ask them. Almost as many said they would consider such urging from a teacher, or even a newly elected president.

This once again raises the question of whether the "millennial" generation -- or whatever they're being called these days -- is receptive to the "ask not..." type of call to service from on high. Pat McGinnis, head of the Council for Excellence in Government, which sponsored the survey Barr cited, is in the "yes" camp. The poll, she said, shows "the potential for the new president and administration, especially as we have the retirement wave getting under way, to ask people, not just millennials but older people as well, to serve. There's a sense that many would respond and step up, as they did when John F. Kennedy asked."

Max Stier, head of the Partnership for Public Service, which specializes in trying to attract the next generation of civil servants, is on record as being skeptical of that notion. "Kennedy's message is no longer the right one," he told Newsweek earlier this year. "It's not about what you can do for government. We need to convey what government can do for you."

To be fair, Stier's not just talking about what government can do for the younger generation in terms of pay and benefits, but in providing an opportunity to do good, rewarding work. And that's the key point: My sense is that young people aren't that different from their elders. They'll readily respond to a call to serve their fellow citizens. But they've seen government at its worst (and, as a result, also have seen it caricatured endlessly), and they want to make sure that by going into a government organization they actually will be able to make a difference.