Work Too Hard

More depressing news: Hampshire County Council will cut 1200 posts this year. As if that weren't bad enough, the latest stats show that 1 in 5 (that's 20%!) of all 16-24 year olds are out of work. Mass unemployment is never healthy, but mass unemployment amongst one of the most impressionable, malleable sectors of society can be downright deadly.

History's taught us this lesson time and time again: if you're looking for a way of pushing some sort of nationalist, jingoistic agenda and you've got a large number of disgruntled, unfocussed young people (especially young men) right under your nose, you don't have to work too hard to win them over to your cause.

The next few years may indeed be difficult, but not just because we're all going to have to count our pennies very closely. We may also have to deal with increasing levels of race-based social tension... tension which may lead to disastrous consequences if it isn't dealt with in an intelligent, forward-thinking manner.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Enjoyed your cometary. Unemployment is up here, too. many jobs going overseas, trade imbalances, a lot of penny pinching going on except amont the wealthy. I agree. It's easy to get the young males attention especially if you have something to offer. And it seems to me most countries have racial tensions at some level. Good luck. Best wishes.
Blogger said…
Bill, thanks for writing. Where's "here" in your case?

I'm sure you're right about racial tension exisiting in most countries.

Popular Posts