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Starting about 2009, there have been a lot of discussions about whether the unemployment in the US was "structural" or not. Some argued that a huge number of l
by HillaryBriss 10y ago
Starting about 2009, there have been a lot of discussions about whether the unemployment in the US was "structural" or not.
Some argued that a huge number of laborers and potential employees did not have necessary skills and therefore would be unable to find work. Period. This was a big component of unemployment.
Others including Paul Krugman and Dean Baker argued that, because employment was down across most every field, the cause of the unemployment was insufficient demand. They basically likened it to the Great Depression, where highly employable people were thrown out of work despite their skill levels.
This news story makes me think that we have some combination of the two stories going on in Spain. And maybe also the US?
Of course, how the country responds to that situation is a separate discussion.
Maybe the government can just borrow some cash (at historically low rates) and, instead of building another airport somewhere, educate twenty thousand IT engineers, even paying them to go to school. Maybe government could demand that employers train people.
Also, what's going on in the EU with the free movement of labor? Don't some IT people want to move from Estonia and Poland down to sunny Spain?
- Findeton 10y agoIn Spain, we just had elections on the 26th of June, and the conservatives won. There is money, as taxes in Spain are high on wages but low on big companies and the government's budget is 10 points lower % than the EU average... but we have a conservative government.
- switch007 10y agoPP won the most votes but not enough to secure a majority. Rajoy is currently in talks with other parties to form a majority, hopefully "within a month." Technically you still have a conservative government but who knows what will happen.
- smsm42 10y agoIf you had elections on 26th of June, it's not likely that this has had any effect on anything happening in Spanish economy. And probably won't be for a while - economy has inertia.
- smsm42 10y agoBorrowing cash internally won't change much - unless you assume that government is spectacularly better at investing than commercial professional investors (whose resources the government would be decreasing by competing with them for the pool of money available for borrowing). So far I haven't seen the proof of it. Borrowing externally may work, but for that you need confidence of foreign investors - which is exactly what you don't have when you have economic problems, so rates would not be historically low.
- Strom 10y agoSpeaking as an Estonian, based on the comments in this thread, the working conditions and even salaries are better in Estonia. Estonia is way more tech focused in general.