Across Spain, France and Italy, young middle-class professionals with good degrees and diplomas are facing a lifetime on low salaries with unrewarding jobs, forever poorer than their parents. Investigation by Graham Keeley in Barcelona, Jason Burke in Paris and Tom Kington in Rome
With inflation soaring, property prices sky high, wages relatively static, labour markets gridlocked and sluggish or slowing economies, Nathalie, Lorenzo, Arias and Di Martino are among tens of millions of Europeans raised to expect that their degrees and diplomas will assure them a relatively high quality of life who are now realising that the world has changed. The disappointment is a shock with big political, social, cultural, even demographic consequences.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/11/spain.france?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
What is the solution to this?
In Spain, they have actually come up with a term to describe this generation: Mileurista
Equality before the law and material equality are not only different but are in conflict with each other; and we can achieve either one or the other, but not both at the same time. -- F. A. Hayek in The Constitution of Liberty
The world is changing, fast, and Europa is starting to awaken from it forty year slumber to discover that maybe socialdemocracy isn't that goldpot it was supposed to be. The bristling middle-class, once Europa's biggest economic and social strength, is still the Continent's steam engine but it is starting to feel the strain. Middle-class youth are probably the hardest hit: caught between stagnant salaries, over-regulation, all-powerful trade unions and insane financial politics they are feeling the strain more than anybody else.
I remember that during my youth we were continously bombarded by the mantra "study law and become a lawyer: it's hard work but you'll be rewarded in the end". I am glad my father hates lawyers (so I was exposed to propaganda day and night for many years) and I am naturally inclined to distrust authority (Celtic hereditary trait?). Why? let's see what happens when a brilliant youth finally gets his law degree in Italy. Unless he has a close relative already practicing law he has to spend a certain as an apprentice in a law firm. Hard, unrewarding work (because he/she is assigned both menial and backbreaking tasks nobody wants to do) for little money (900 Euros a month is the usual dole). Before he/she can start practicing law as a full fledged lawyer or attorney he/she has to pass a State-approved exam, which he/she can take up to four years to pass. During this time he/she will either keep on being a menial "law worker" or will have to find another temporal, usually lowly-paid work. Once he/she has his/her State-sanctioned license you'd expect it will be all glory and high paid work... well that works if your father, uncle, aunt or whatever is already a senior member of a law firm (in which case your apprenticeship was true, decently-paid training and not slave work) and will introduce you into the job. Otherwise you have to find yourself a job as a low-ranking lawyer in a large law firm. You won't earn much more than you earned as a trainee, but you'll be given all the cases the firm owners will consider below their dignity, plus the menial jobs apprentices are forbidden from doing by their status. Not bad, considering this is what you'll be doing for the rest of your working life?
Yes, it's time for the Dr Goebbels show!
I think it depends who you are. If you work for the government the system is probably working for you. I think you need to look at who the system is working for, not who it is working against.
Young middle class professionals with good degrees? If the degrees are good why aren't they earning more. Education has become a bit of a scam. Atleast in europe students don't have loans, atleast I think that's how it works.
Hi Austrian folks,
The basic ideas on the previous posts hit exactly on the nail. To summarize, growing state interventionism is ruining Europe's economic health, including the ingress of young graduates into the labor market.
A clear example for this self-defeating view: some time ago, the French elected one more socialist government that created more stupid laws intended to "protect" the youth giving them stability on their first job after getting their college degrees. According to this law, the graduates would have a compulsory "stability" period -- don't remember whether one or two years -- during which they couldn't be fired for whichever reason.
Guess waht happened? The greedy evil capitalists just stopped hiring young professionals, who cannot find their first jobs any more. Instead of hiring the brilliant young leftist greenies who elected their socialist slavemasters, employers would prefer to hire older professionals able to keep their jobs by virtue of their own merits -- and may be fired whenever the employer deems necessary, be it as a result of poor performance, or any other issue left for the enterpreneur to decide.
Thus, they have now exactly what they voted for. Who is to blame? The soulless free market?
Regards from Rio,
R. Halevy.
Interestingly, it works the other way round in Germany: young professionals are more likely to be hired due to less burdens connected with their employment, whereas people over 40 have a tough time finding jobs due to high non-wage labor costs and other mandatory benefits.And sure enough, a recently founded socialist alliance is on its march over here as well ...
Ludwig von Mises Institute | 518 West Magnolia Avenue | Auburn, Alabama 36832-4528
Phone: 334.321.2100 · Fax: 334.321.2119
contact@Mises.org | webmaster | AOL-IM MainMises
Mises.org sitemap