Question:
If I had a good idea that he was trying to say that humans will never change,
or possibly get worse, then I can enjoy it, as anyone can enjoy a good
dystopia. But come on- can you expect for everyone to be able to do
federal service in a world population that numbers in the billions. It doesn't
seem mathematically feasible to land everyone a job in the government just so
they can vote.
Answer:
As I see it.
Point #1. the normal term was for only 2 years. This gives a lot more room
for people to serve. However, some government jobs, e.g. police, were
reserved for veterans. And of course, only veterans could hold public
office. Note that these were jobs that 'could not' be held while on active
duty, and were thus not considered as part of 'federal service'.
Point #2. Only about 3% of Terran peoples actually served IIRC. (as opposed
to 97% on Iskander?)
Point #3. We aren't given the population of Terra. Could have been greatly
reduced, (or higher).
Assuming a population of 5 billion: 3% of that is 150,000,000. Assuming an
average generation of 25 years would mean that about 6,000,000 would come of
age every year from that group. Yep. that would seem to be a lot of 'jobs',
whether it be MI or "counting fuzz on a caterpillar" that would have to be
filled each year, (assuming that my assumptions are reasonable and my math
is actually correct), but I don't think that it is beyond 'mathematical
feasibility'. Incidentally, I don't see any way that the bulk of those
'jobs' could be military. Too high a cost and "they didn't need that many".
