NYT: How Italy’s Labor Codes Hurt Young People

The New York Times reports on how Italy’s labor laws are stealing the future away from young Italians.  Labor and pension laws provide older Italians with employment protections and generous pensions.  The cost is borne by young people who have less job security and more dismal future prospects as a result.

ROME — Assunta Linza, a bright-eyed 33-year-old with a college degree in psychology, has been unemployed since June, after losing a temporary job as a call-center operator. Her father, who is 60 and has a fifth-grade education, took early retirement with full benefits at age 42 from a job as a workman at the Italian state railway company.

“Everyone said that kids should study to get ahead, but I graduated with highest honors, and the only thing my degree is good for is to hang on the wall,” Ms. Linza said dryly. 

Barack Obama’s agenda involves the expansion of union power and entitlement programs.  The experience of young people in Italy should provide fair warning of where Mr. Obama’s agenda is taking your future.

American Mammoni

The Christian Science Monitor reports that the percentage of young people living with their parents has reached the highest level since the 1950’s.  

After graduating from Brown University in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature and completing a Fulbright scholarship in Brazil, Cassie Owens was left with a few dollars on her stipend and no job in sight. So, Ms. Owens returned home to her mother in Philadelphia.

“I moved back home pretty much for lack of money and prospects,” she says. Owens’s cousin, Evon Burton, who also returned home after graduating from Morehouse College in 2009, adds, “The choice is to go out and be in debt or to pursue your dreams and save up money at home, in a safe, stable environment.”

US Youth Unemployment at European Levels

How's that hopey changey stuff working out?  Labor force participation of young Americans falls to a 64 year low under Barack Obama.