Big tech should create a national service program to make the US more united

No form of modern technology can replace what’s needed to bridge divides that have deepened during decades of disruption in which few have prospered and many have languished. What’s needed is a voluntary, but expected, national service program that allows people to walk a mile in another American’s shoes. This program — let’s call it the American Service Corps — would send eighteen-year-olds to another corner of the country for a year to live in a new community, complete service projects and interact with folks of varied backgrounds and beliefs. This pie-in-the-sky idea is required in these sky-is-falling days. And big tech can help make it happen.

[Kevin Frazier is a Masters of Public Policy student at the Harvard Kennedy School and JD candidate at the UC Berkeley School of Law.]