20 Responses

  1. Seems like a recipe for revolution. Europe is going to look very different within 10 years, if not sooner.

  2. When overall German unemployment hits 8+% or some Greek assassinates Merkel, then I do not expect much change. German economy already caught the cold, the flu is not far behind. Europe will just keep declining. Mechanically, based on their actions I just do not see how it does not decline.

  3. Wow. If Germans are the “parents” of the euro zone now, Greek & Spanish youth are definitely the neglected – and endangered – stepchildren!

    1. @roger erickson,
      parents??
      we know Germans from a long time..(in Italy)
      we thought we were part of a new “federation” of states.
      we are now stupid victims of real war.
      economic subjugation, our political autonomy is lost, possibility to intervene in support of our economy is lost.
      need little, a little of MMT.( sorry for my Engl.)

      ciao

      1. @Sara,

        No one forced Italy into the Eurozone. Truth is, there are a lot of masochists out there! Italians apparently never learned their lesson from the world wars. Thinking back to 2000, everyone was very excited to buy new leather wallets for their new larger currency. Seems like ages ago.

      2. @vincent,
        Nobody know economy in italy and either everywhere. The problem is schools and propaganda, not masochistic inclination.
        I think in january obama and fiscal cliff will do the same…

      3. @vincent, A common currency in a relatively compact region is more efficient. But, getting rid of the money changers does not guarantee that money won’t be used as a tool to try to manage the population. To manipulate is to put one’s hand to a task, to handle one’s natural environment. Some people, it seems, lack the necessary talents to manipulate their natural environment and interpret management in terms of manipulating people to do things for them. Indeed, beginning in the late sixties, universities began teaching management as a social science, personnel management, instead of resource and infrastructure management. And then it got even more esoteric with financial engineering. Managing money became the panacea and nobody had to get their hands dirty.
        One could also say that people who do things with their hands were replaced by people who only talk. And now the talkers are being made obsolete by electronics.

      4. @vincent,
        No doubt the euro has introduced efficiencies. given the history of europe during the 20th century, however, i would have joined a currency born of the DM with some trepidation. it’s funny, there were a lot of folks in italy who feared germany so much, they were opposed to unification of the DDR and BRD. but, i guess that had passed by 2000. I liked the Lire. Still do.

  4. There is no indication whether these unemployed are male or female. Personally, I’m tired of the argument that young people need to be put to work to keep them from rioting in the streets. In Egypt they were sent to be educated and then they revolted because they perceived it had just been a holding pattern and there were no provisions to let them participate in society and use their skills.
    The lust for power seems stronger than the lust for sex and, since power, to be felt, has to hurt, the deprivation of physical and social rights keeps popping up. It needs to be resisted, especially when it is hard to identify because money and the law have managed to disguise what’s going on.

    1. @Monica Smith,

      The Egyptian revolution, as you call it, or the Arab Spring, was started by a 19-year-old girl who was fed up with the clamps on her freedom of expression by the boys around her, and the lack of access to things she wanted to do as a girl, academically and otherwise. She posted a youtube, which I saw, and organized the first demonstration in Tahrir Square with her friends. Lots of others came in to claim leadership, including the Google VP who consorted with the rich gated community of Cairo, not with those of this girl’s ilk.

      1. @MRW, Thanks for that clarification. I am tempted to observe that the female of the species is the natural organizer, but that would be resented as sexist. However, accumulating resources and organizing them for an ulterior purpose and future use are distinct skills which don’t necessarily exist in the same organism.

  5. England in the 1800s had the solution to youth unemployment: pay apprentices nothing. In fact some apprentices had to pay for the privilege of being employed for their first year.

    That may be politically incorrect, but if an idea is politically incorrect, that’s strong evidence that the idea is a good one.

    1. @Ralph Musgrave,
      woefully non-compliant with the new rule that all kids must be college prep, whether college material or not. i love your thought, because it’s good for the government, good for the kids, particularly those who don’t necessarily do well in school, and who likely have numerous talents waiting to be developed, and for all of us–not a bad thing to have some people around who know to build a cabinet, or anything else for that matter.

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