"Perhaps the most debilitating consequence of the euro zone’s economic downturn and its debt-driven austerity crusade has been the soaring rate of youth unemployment. Spain’s jobless rate for people ages 16 to 24 is approaching 50 percent. Greece’s is 48 percent, and Portugal’s and Italy’s, 30 percent. Here in Britain, the rate is 22.3 percent, the highest since such data began being collected in 1992. (The comparable rate for Americans is 18 percent.)" ("For London Youth, Down and Out is a Way of Life, New York Times, February 16, 2012).
Eighteen percent unemployment for American youths 16 to 24 still is nothing to brag about. In Minnesota, the number of unemployed youths 16 to 24 is above the national average, at 21.1 percent.
What happens when you have long term unemployment of youth? A decrease in tax revenue. An increase in crime. A heightened need for social services. Anger. Despair. The potential for youth to give up certain freedoms and rights, or overlook the freedoms and rights of others, in exchange for their salvation. The potential to bond over perceived racial supremacy, under the delusion that people of other races have taken their jobs and destroyed their country.
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