The “lost generation” and the myth of the asphyxiated Italian labor market
Who knows why common sense speeches in Italy are always difficult to do. It should be the other way around, if we were a normal country. But we are not, whether we like it or not. I also want to make it clear from the outset that I do not intend to use abstract arguments. I am not talking about the common sense so dear to the Scottish philosophical school – unfortunately little known in the Italian context – but about the almost banal term "common sense", the one we use with both hands in our daily conversations.
The theme is the labor market. Some time ago I wrote an article in which I spoke of the so-called "lost generation", the one made up of people who are between 30 and 40 years old, underlining how the older generations are responsible for the situation in which the youngest find themselves for having made them find an asphyxiated – and sometimes non-existent – job market which makes them victims of permanent precariat (when it goes well!).
Basically I remain with my idea. We have squandered resources that, literally, were not there, guaranteeing ourselves a lifestyle that we could not afford. The political class has enormous faults, but don't say that everything, absolutely everything, is attributable to politicians. We are, in reality, accomplices of a widespread mentality, which has led to the belief for years that the state had infinite resources. The famous saying "Pantalone pays so much!" .
But the infinite resources were not there at all, so much so that we are submerged by a debt that is almost entirely in the hands of the international markets which, you know, are not tender. They demand the return of the amounts invested, which is why every auction of our treasury bonds becomes a thriller . If the auction fails, the risk of not being able to pay salaries and pensions, with all that entails, would manifest itself. For now it has not happened, tomorrow it could happen.
It is true, therefore, that we are killing the hope of young people in the future. And this is a very serious, not to say unforgivable, fault. However, some readers, in their "hot" comments, pointed out to me that perhaps it would be worthwhile to stop whining. Because – they argue – young people also have their faults. These are probably “reflected” faults, since we have educated them and have absorbed our way of relating to the surrounding world.
Our grandparents – and fathers too – emigrated en masse in the two post-war years to find work abroad. This aroused discouragement but life continued, perhaps founding Italian communities in the four corners of the world. Then the reverse flow began. Italy, from a land of emigrants, has become a country that "imports" foreign workers in large quantities. It is important to understand the reasons.
They are not as mysterious as they seem. It happened that, at a certain point, Italians began to refuse many types of employment. Sometimes because they are paid little, more often because they are considered "degrading" or unsatisfactory from the point of view of social prestige. The myth of a degree at all costs has spread, even when it is clear that it is of little or no use, and entire economic sectors that had – and still have – a great need for employees have been left to foreign immigrants.
Examples abound. Artisans, in every sense of the word, have become a rare commodity. More difficult to find the plumber and the electrician of the doctor. The furniture restorers, while well paid, are also few and have waiting lists worthy of an illustrious primary.
But there is an even more striking and well-known case. The average age of the Italian population in recent decades has increased in a way that was previously unthinkable. This resulted in the need to find people who assist the elderly continuously, for the whole day and often even at night. There are many elderly people and, consequently, the number of those providing home care is destined to grow more and more. It is a difficult and delicate job which, among other things, also guarantees a decent remuneration.
Are Italians willing to operate in this growing sector? Very rare cases. We have been invaded – in the good sense of the word, please – by "caregivers" who come mostly from South America or Eastern countries that once belonged to the Soviet bloc. They usually do an excellent job, but it is not clear why almost all of our compatriots refuse to provide services of that kind, which are so important. Or, better, you understand it very well: the name "caregiver" is considered a sort of offense to one's social dignity and, then, he turns his head away.
I don't want to go too long as you can easily find dozens of equally fitting examples. At this point, however, it is urgent to ask ourselves if the Italian labor market is really as suffocating as we want to believe. It depends. If everyone aspires to a profession that involves a degree and delivers high earnings right away, then it is. If, on the other hand, it is considered as a whole, it becomes much less so, with entire sectors that would absorb considerable quantities of labor in a period of such serious economic crisis.
A radical change of mentality would be necessary, which can only be induced by an education – family and school – destined not to demean, for example, manual professions by enhancing those of an intellectual type. A sort of "educational revolution" very difficult to achieve given the dominant cultural models, of which we ourselves are bearers and have subsequently passed on to our children.
Easier said than done, of course, also because the crisis is pressing and the Italian system continues to fail on the world stage. Mine is a down to earth speech, of "common sense" as I said at the beginning. But perhaps it helps to understand that the myth of the asphyxiated or non-existent Italian labor market is, in fact, just a myth. There are vast sectors of the market in which our compatriots do not even bother to put their nose, for fear of an alleged social degradation. And this situation cannot last long if the country is to finally return to growth by developing its undoubted potential.
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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/la-generazione-perduta-e-il-mito-del-mercato-del-lavoro-italiano-asfittico/ on Mon, 14 Dec 2020 04:55:00 +0000.