Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
Guess before clicking on the link. No cheating.
For xxxxxx, the most frightening danger is the social dynamite generated by educated but jobless young men. You see them, singly or in groups, slouching, sullen, on street corners and down the paths of xxxxxxxx. Many have come out of universities that were created more for state prestige than to meet the occupational needs of the society. Their faculties churn out diploma-holders with high expectations and a short-fused sense of entitlement. Once out in the real world, the graduates are greeted by a sluggish economy flattened further by the global economic slowdown. Not even the featherbedded government bureaucracies are hiring.
It’s not hard to picture, say, a 26-year-old law graduate trying to make a life by xxxxxxxx. His education has not delivered. He is depressed and resentful. His ears are open to talk about revenge against the repressive elites, and he is far from alone.
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Comments :
Sep '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
This is difficult because the example of a law grad resentful of elites doesn't make sense. However it is written the style of modern American journalists and the US is filled with law school grads. USA?
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
Tunisia, I would guess. It has a good educational system. But it could describe many a place, and where higher education is the norm or nearly the norm and there is a great deal of structural unemployment (especially for the young) it is an accurate description.
May '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
I'd say Germany, but they don't graduate until 30. Britain? Turkey would be too obvious, right?
Jun '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
I'll say Egypt. Sounds like something I read about Egyptian socialism under Nassar and how it effected Qutb.
Sep '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
I had guessed the USA as well. Oops.
Aug '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
Everywhere, all students think they are being repressed by the elites - especially after four to six years of being taught that. Last time I was in a college. bookstore with one of my kids I saw Howard Zinn being sold as a textbook. So not only are they selling crap and teaching it, they are shoveling big dough to their hero, because there are books in a college bookstore priced below sixty bucks.
Edited on Jan 20, 2011 at 5:25amWhere's David Horowitz when we need him?
Aug '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
After looking at the link, I realized that people getting tired of an admin and throwing them out while getting shot at,self immolating,and watching the treasury fly to Paris is the foreign language version of what we call election in America.
Edited on Jan 20, 2011 at 5:32amLet's hope our recent one holds. Too bad the treasury is so big they can't get it on a plane, they need a couple million accomplices to steal that much.
Nov '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
I want to guess some Muslim country but I'm really going to say California. I know it's not its own country, bit I wish it were.
Jul '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
I'll be boring & say France.
Jul '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
Saudi Arabia. But France works too.
May '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
I'll say Britain, judging by headlines I've seen the past couple days that Gordon Brown is worried about a global pandemic of "youth" unemployment. I'm sure the youths he's referring to are the sort who burn cars.
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
I'm sure everyone looked after commenting, right? Kind of interesting how universal the description is.
Good call, Paul.
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
Claire Berlinski, Ed.: I'm sure everyone looked after commenting, right? Kind of interesting how universal the description is.
Good call, Paul. · Jan 20 at 8:56am
I have been to Tunisia and had an unfair advantage.
Dec '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
Italy now has 20 percent of young adults in the status of NEET: Not in Employment, Education or Training.
May '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
China was my instant guess. Talk of frustrated males makes me think of the Chinese gender imbalance.
Sep '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
I guessed Great Britain. Not USA - the big resentment here is student loans that "can't" be repaid. But otherwise, it's almost a universal problem. The energy of male youth, sidelined and marginalized by repressive government, over-regulation, depressed economies, or societal control. The traditional outlets are war and exploration/entrepreneurism. We've got to find a way to encourage the latter on a global scale, or we're guaranteed the former.
Jul '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
I'd guessed Pakistan, but it was a tough call, and it sounds much more like America than I care to say.
Jul '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
I thought it was about me and my fellow graduates from law school in 1983 . . .
May '10
Re: Which Country is this Columnist Describing?
I struck up a conversation yesterday with a very savvy Human Resources VP, when we found ourselves becalmed in the endless hurry-up-and wait of a jury summons day. She mentioned that she and her peers are seeing a significant increase in the average salary paid for lower level white collar positions. This would seem an odd thing to happen in a recession, but her explanation rang true: American companies are reducing head count by eliminating senior positions, flattening out their organizations by pushing former managers down the ladder into individual contributor roles, and laying off their less-skilled workers. The result is a highly educated, experienced, and largely underemployed workforce. Average salaries of lower-rank workers are higher than before because many of them were allowed to keep part or all of their existing compensation when they were demoted.
I am one of those workers, although I was "demoted" years ago by the dot-com crash, which vaporized senior management headcount throughout the technology industry. When I think about my two Master's degrees -- about as frequently as I get to use them -- it is with rueful regret and a sense of time wrongly spent.