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Going Through The Motions
It doesn’t take much sympathy to feel for the long-term unemployed, especially those who held down jobs for decades before discovering that — due to changes in the market, financial collapse, or injury — neither they nor their skills have useful employment. I’d even say that one needn’t be a raging leftist to at least consider whether the state should have some role in helping them transition into something new and remunerative, rather than let their skills and work habits atrophy to the point where they’re incapable of ever getting a new job.
It should come as little surprise that in Europe — where more than half of the unemployed haven’t had a job in over a year — consideration often turns into implementation. Sometimes, as this New York Times piece describes, that goes to some very, very weird places:
Sabine de Buyzer, working in the accounting department, leaned into her computer and scanned a row of numbers. Candelia [her employer] was doing well. Its revenue that week was outpacing expenses, even counting taxes and salaries. “We have to be profitable,” Ms. de Buyzer said. “Everyone’s working all out to make sure we succeed.”
This was a sentiment any boss would like to hear, but in this case the entire business is fake. So are Candelia’s customers and suppliers, from the companies ordering the furniture to the trucking operators that make deliveries. Even the bank where Candelia gets its loans is not real.
More than 100 Potemkin companies like Candelia are operating today in France, and there are thousands more across Europe. In Seine-St.-Denis, outside Paris, a pet business called Animal Kingdom sells products like dog food and frogs. ArtLim, a company in Limoges, peddles fine porcelain. Prestige Cosmetique in Orleans deals in perfumes. All these companies’ wares are imaginary.
According to the article, these virtual companies spun out of — and still operate largely as — training centers, with the objective of helping people back into the real workforce. They don’t pay wages, so those using them (if that’s the right phrase), still have to get by on their unemployment benefits.
But before we get back to that, it gets weirder:
Some of the faux companies even hold strikes — a common occurrence in France. Axisco, a virtual payment processing center in Val d’Oise, recently staged a fake protest, with slogans and painted banners, to teach workers’ rights and to train human resources staff members to calm tensions…
Several of the firms slid into virtual bankruptcy when they became [virtually] unprofitable. When that happened, the staff members took steps to shut down the company. They also learned how to open a new one, including applying for loans at a fake bank. The lenders will even reject them if the application isn’t properly filled out.
Now, I’m enough of a nerd to know that a good, immersive simulation can be extremely educational, and it’s worth noting that 60-70% of those who graduate from these virtual firms subsequently find real jobs. Even if we stipulate that we should be highly biased against government — and that the welfare conditions it creates often foster the conditions that allow long-term unemployment — that’s not nothing.
Still, there’s the weirdness. On the one hand, I can see the value in reminding people that — not matter how immersive or realistic — their training is just that, and they shouldn’t confuse it with a real job. But is there really nothing for these people to do that would provide them with training that’s actually productive, even if highly subsidized and unprofitable?
Published in Economics
How about having the Government establish partnerships with private sector companies whereby the long-term unemployed can work as “interns” at no cost to the company? The Government could extend unemployment benefits to people who are working as “interns” for a few extra months. Another idea would be to put some long-term unemployed to work at Government offices with chronically long lines and slow service. There are certainly many more ways to put the 93 million Americans who are out of the workforce in temporary jobs that would benefit society.
Perhaps instead of giving people welfare payments we should put them to work building the border fence and guarding the border. That would be the equivalent of giving them a real job, not a potemkin one.
That would make a whole lot more sense to me.
This little game sounds a lot more immersive than real employment. Getting a job would be quite a letdown.
The Left likes fantasy. Pretend jobs and pretend strikes are all of a piece with the utopian fantasy of a socialist worker’s paradise. Reality is simply too nasty for them.
Don’t harsh my mellow, man.
I guess it beats sitting on the couch playing Xbox and surfing Facebook all day.
What is the incentive for companies to hire these people long term? Free workers? Hell, I may be a libertarian but I’d be a fool not to milk that for all its worth.
Just cash out your virtual stock options and start your virtual retirement.
Getting ready to operate in the private sector is such a hassle. They could just watch porn, play solitaire and leave early to get ready for a government job instead.
Is there a wii mop for the janitors to practice with?
The casual dismissal of people who are learning skills that will help them secure a job exhibited in this thread is pretty disheartening. What are your solutions for the long term unemployed?
I tend to think that making volunteer work a condition of receiving unemployment would solve most of this. It forces people to get out of bed in the morning, gets some structure to their day, helps them network, and at least reduces the stagnation/depletion of their skills. You could even require a mere day or two a week (perhaps the latter for those who don’t have young children at home).
One of the worst things about extending unemployment compensation to two years is that people stayed unemployed (rather than bagging groceries at the supermarket, even) for two years. At that point, our number of “disabled” people skyrocketed, because people started using disability as a substitute for an unemployment check.
Just get people out of the house and doing something. That’s the goal.
I don’t think our society has quite come to terms yet with the economic shakeup of the 60’s and 70’s and beyond. Solid (often mindless yet still needed) jobs moving offshore or being replaced by technology. What kinds of jobs have absorbed the great mass of people in the middle of the intelligence and skill curves?
What is the best way to employ the average and less than average? I don’t think we’ve hit on anything good yet.
Temp or contract work would be better than pretend work. The problem is, the way our unemployment insurance works, you could end making less working than you would by not working. Creating disincentives to work is not good.
I presume the disincentives for temp and/or part-time work are even greater in The French Republic.
I wager many in Europe might be offended having their reputations tarnished by the idiotic labour policies in The French Republic.
I wager this kind of policy would never see daylight in Germany, at least not at the federal level. Probably wouldn’t even happen in the Scandinavian countries either. Certainly not in Estonia, Poland, or the Czech Republic.
On the other hand, it might find enthusiastic support in Greece, Italy, or Spain (or an independent Scotland, for that matter).
Blaming “Europe” for the idiotic policies of one country is a lot like blaming the United States for the idiotic policies of California.
(Of course, if this sort of policy is ever mandated by the EU bureaucrats in Brussels, that’ll be a different story…)
This program seems more suited to initially training someone to join the workforce (vo-tech) rather than address the long-term unemployed who presumably were employed at one time. It’s an interesting idea, but I’m skeptical about the quality of the feedback/critique that the participants receive. In the end, I think that this is not much different than other job training/retraining programs – folks will get out what they put in.
Anecdotally, I have participated in training programs in which the majority of the participants had their fees paid and in fact themselves being paid to attend via job retraining programs. Their performance in the program was pretty poor. They may have been poorly matched to the content based upon their individual intellect and interests, I don’t know. All I know is that someone around here likes to think that having skin in the game works to eliminate those without the appropriate commitment.
And how. I should write a post about this; a comment is insufficient. Remind me.
I agree with what Jaimie said above. There are many high quality people out of work or under-employed. Unfortunately no matter what you do to stay involved in your industry, you are still running hard just to catch up.
Long-term unemployment is quite damaging and at least these people in France are getting pretty transferable experience.
What they are doing is likely far more relevant to their future work than the part-time job as a wine sales/consultant my husband has done for the past 18 mos.
I think that’s impressive.
I wouldn’t compare it to doing nothing to help the long-term unemployed. I would compare it to existing efforts and money being spent to help the unemployed.
In Massachusetts, that would be a lot of money.
It sounds like the program in France might get better results than our existing programs.
I’m a little floored by the mock-strikes. But then, with programs like these, I guess I’m not sure where to start… no idea how you found this, but it was entertaining.
How about this for a jobs program…
Job Center Apologizes for Offer in Bordello
No experience, training or education needed….