Tuesday, January 18, 2011

It's Rough Out There for Young Spanish People

Interesting Article in the New York Times. Pretty right on I'm afraid - and it has been like this for as long as I can remember. Employment laws meant to "protect the worker" have ended up screwing young people. Employers won't hire because they can't fire anyone if the business climate changes. At the same time, everyone runs around obsessing about the "permanent job" a concept that has never existed in the U.S. save some government employees - and that is changing too.

I like what this guy says regarding pensions, healthcare and what will happen when Spain's low birthrate continues:

“What we have is a Ponzi scheme,” said Laurence J. Kotlikoff, an economist at Boston University and an expert in fiscal policy. He said that pay-as-you-go social security and health care were a looming fiscal disaster in Southern Europe and beyond. “If these fertility rates continue through time, you won’t have Italians, Spanish, Greeks, Portuguese or Russians,” he said. “I imagine the Chinese will just move into Southern Europe.”

1 comment:

BusinessKata said...

very interesting to see what might happen in the future because of this. Especially as a young person!