For nearly a year now, I’ve been thinking seriously about a specific social issue. That it’s taken me a year probably speaks volumes about my limited mental agility. But it also happens to be one of those thorny issues has been left to languish in the “too hard” basket by our political leaders.This – to me – is the one issue that sits above all the others that clamour for political attention. But if ignored, it’s also the one issue that has the potential to utterly destroy the current social/political structure in which we live.
That issue? Youth Unemployment.
Even as I write these words, they sound boring … your eyes probably glazed over at the mere mention. But I see this as by far the biggest threat to Western Civilization. Or to look at it more positively, the biggest potential opportunity for this Generation to improve the lives of the people who will be the next occupants of this planet: our children’s children.
And when I say “the biggest threat”, it may be already too late for some countries, where a whole generation of young people have already spent enough time unemployed that they are unlikely to ever be “employable” in the usual sense of the word.
Youth Unemployment is an issue in practically every country (developed or emerging). But it is a far more serious problem in some countries than in others, and the political classes seem utterly blind to the risks. In most of the countries with which I have first-hand experience (New Zealand, the UK, the US), the rate of unemployment for young people is higher than for the population as a whole. Even in countries like New Zealand, where overall unemployment is relatively low (5%), youth unemployment is around 15%. Sadly, in countries like France, Spain, Italy and Greece, the rate of unemployment for young people is radically higher than it is for the (already too high) population at large. This is where the issue morphs from being just one social ill among many, to being an absolute existential crisis for society.
For 25% of young French people to be unemployed is terrible. But in Italy it’s even worse, at 35%. I can almost comprehend what that must be like, but I can’t even begin to imagine how 55% of young Spaniards and nearly 60% of young Greeks lack employment. It doesn’t seem real. But unless the statisticians are lying, it has been that way for years. And that terrifies me, frankly. You can’t just dismiss people as lacking spine or motivation when more than half of them lack a job.
Unemployment is corrosive enough in small doses. In the recent recession, many people had the experience of a few weeks or months between jobs. But for people who come out of school or university and never, ever get a real job, the impact is crippling. Many employed people moan about their boss or their work, but even they can acknowledge the self-respect and the financial independence their job gives them. When a substantial proportion of society has never felt that self-respect, never enjoyed even a moment of financial security, and never had any prospect of improvement, corrosion turns to poison.
Why the political classes think this is acceptable is beyond me. Even if they don’t care about the next generation, you would think they would see the writing on the wall in the shape of the next election. And if not the next one, then definitely the one after that. Because the day is fast approaching when enough disillusioned young people will take power into their own hands, whether at the polling booth or by violent protest. Why wouldn’t they? What do they have to lose?
I’m not particularly a fan of Russell Brand. His recent social commentary has – for me – been tainted by his personal hypocrisy. But I have no doubt he is right when he points out that the (largely young) people who feel let down by the system will eventually vote – or act – to destroy it. Young people who are unemployed for any period of time have no vested interest in sustaining the structure of society they live in. Why should they? Society has failed and betrayed them.
Politicians have relied for years on the tenet that younger and poorer people are less inclined to vote. Which is why they’ve continued to pander to the greed and insecurity of those with the most to lose if the current system changes (and who therefore vote en mass). But that voting dynamic is already changing, and could turn on a dime if people coalesce around a timely spark. In countries like Greece and Italy, new political parties are already tapping into the growing disillusionment with establishment politics. It’s easy to imagine a “flash-mob”-style campaign, wrapped around an issue like Youth Unemployment, putting one of those parties into power with a mandate to change the system from the ground up. Would they know what to do? Possibly not. Would that stop them dismantling the current system? Hell no!
Of course there’s a limit to what Governments can do to reduce Youth Unemployment. Governments, despite what Monsieur Hollande might think, cannot sustainably create useful jobs. But they can at least get out of the way by removing barriers to job creation. And they can resist the temptation to protect at all costs the wealth of the older, voting classes, at the expense of the young.
Why do I feel this social issue transcends all the others? Because the solutions to most other social ills rely on the next generation paying for the current generation’s future healthcare, pensions and infrastructure. All the concerns du jour like how to pay for the NHS or how to ensure that people can retire with dignity are predicated on the next generation’s willingness to pay for the promises made today (or last week, or last year). Remove that one presumption and the system implodes like the Ponzi scheme that it is.
If enough of that next generation is deprived of a decent income, they clearly cannot play their part in sustaining the system as it exists today. But much more importantly, if they are denied the right to their own dignity, security and independence they simply won’t want to sustain the system. They will happily bring it down if they think there’s the slightest chance that whatever replaces it will treat them a little better.
There it is: Youth Unemployment. It still sounds boring, but for some reason it’s important to me.
I’ve never really felt like I “owned” a specific social issue before. I don’t really feel like I chose this one … it just seems to have chosen me.
What do I intend to do about Youth Unemployment on a Global scale? I really don’t know. But somehow I do know that it’s my job to do something about it.
Any Suggestions? …
For me, 2014 has been a year of endings. In January I decided to call time on a 24-year career, and also on a 3-year sojourn in France. These had both been fabulous experiences and there is so much I’ve enjoyed about both my company and my adopted country. But in both cases it was time to move on; time to try something new. Then in June, my wife decided to call time on our 26-year marriage. And that didn’t feel the same to me at all. I wasn’t ready for that change; in fact I would never have been ready for it. I couldn’t see past it to any kind of new future. It felt like something much more terminal. An ending. And then a void.
Paul Manson 