In the News (from The New York Times): “Europe’s long-running euro crisis may be cooling. But the economic distress it has left in its wake is pushing a rising tide of workers into precarious straits in France and across the European Union. Today, hundreds of thousands of people are living in campgrounds, vehicles and cheap hotel rooms. Millions more are sharing space with relatives, unable to afford the basic costs of living.

“These people are the extreme edge of Europe’s working poor: a growing slice of the population that is slipping through Europe’s long-vaunted social safety net. Many, particularly the young, are trapped in low-paying or temporary jobs that are replacing permanent ones destroyed in Europe’s economic downturn.

“Now, economists, European officials and social watchdog groups are warning that the situation is set to worsen. As European governments respond to the crisis by pushing for deep spending cuts to close budget gaps and greater flexibility in their work forces, ‘the population of working poor will explode,’ said Jean-Paul Fitoussi, an economics professor at L’Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris.

“The trend is most alarming in hard-hit countries like Greece and Spain, but it is rising even in more prosperous nations like France and Germany.

“‘France is a rich country,’ Mr. Fitoussi said. ‘But the working poor are living in the same condition as in the 19th century. They can’t pay for heating, they can’t pay for their children’s clothes, they are sometimes living five people in a nine-square-meter apartment — here in France!’ he exclaimed, speaking of an apartment of about 100 square feet.”

My Comment: Unfortunately, because of the government’s near-sightedness and a lack of political will, the population sufferers, not the government. Integration and union—these are not just words but a state of society! The fathers of the European integration didn’t take this into account. They wished to reach their egoistic goals without making social changes.

Unification must be above all contradictions; otherwise, the “European Union” that never existed in reality will collapse burying the entire developed Europe. Even at the beginning of the creation of the EU, I wrote what was necessary for a union:

Upbringing: How to bring up a person, (Hinuch in Hebrew), when a person is not yet formed, bringing up a child through attitudes, frameworks, and through creating an environment, using exercises until the age of 13. Concurrently, but to the extent of the assimilation of upbringing, learning is added.

Learning: To learn (Lemidah in Hebrew), the assimilation of the past human experience. This brings a person to education.

Education: To educate, to shape the image of the future in a person, that is, his ability to think about the future and move forward.
[75635]

Related Material:
Spain’s Lost Generation? No, A Newfound One!
Spain’s Unemployment Tops 5 Million
Business Leaders Warn Of “Not A Crisis, But A Disaster”

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, News | Add Comment →