Government officials in Greece and Canada have a cure to youth unemployment. Youth should work for free until they’re 24! Then perhaps the company they are in servitude to might deign to hire them. Oh wait. By the time they are 24 and presumably ready to be paid, there will be lots more youth coming up through the ranks who can be coerced to work for free. So, it’ll be out the door with the oldsters, and time to bring in more fresh meat. And thus the cycle will continue. Increased profits from such cost-cutting will be awesome indeed.
It’s only a matter of time until this barely disguised slavery reaches the US. In some ways, it already has. Unpaid internships are the leading edge of the New Servitude and are showing employers exciting new ways to be ultra-exploitative. Silicon Valley will no doubt adopt this strategy as being just another example that innovative disruption they are so proud of. And indeed, forcing someone to work for years unpaid will indeed be disruptive (to that person.)
Nine short months ago, the clever people running the show in Europe suggested a number of measures including “unpaid work for the young and unemployed up to 24 years old, so that companies would have a strong motive to hire young employees”. ‘Unpaid’ work sounded a lot like slavery to us then but it seems the arrogance is contagious as Canada – that bastion of freedom – suggests that the employment situation is so bad that young people should consider working for free. As The Globe & Mail reports, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said ‘Adult children stuck in their parents’ basements because they can’t find adequate employment should take unpaid work to bolster résumés as they wait for the recovery to take hold’.
From the comments at Zero Hedge:
I can’t see 25-yr-olds being too happy about this.
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– no pay jobs for all < 24 – pink slips for all > 24
– no job training because they get fired on their 25th birthday
– free labor for all corporations
– corporate profits grow
– stock market goes higherWhat’s there not to like?
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It’s actually much much worse than slavery – at least slaves are fed, sheltered and clothed.