I just read a very disturbing story from the New York Times
entitled “The World Has Too Many Young People,” by Somini Sengupta. (http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-world-has-a-problem-too-many-young-people/ar-BBqnY8m?li=BBnb7Kz)
One would never guess that is the case by looking at a typical Christian
congregation in either Europe or the United States where gray hair, arthritic
knees and hips, and declining membership is the norm.
Sengupta
focuses much of her article on India. Here are a few eye-opening statements in
the article.
-Every
month, some one million young Indians turn 18 — coming of age, looking for
work, registering to vote and making India home to the largest number of young,
working-age people anywhere in the world.
- Already,
the number of Indians between the ages of 15 and 34 — 422 million — is roughly
the same as the combined populations of the United States, Canada and Britain.
- This is just part of
India’s staggering challenge. Every year, the country must create an estimated
12 million to 17 million jobs.
These figures do not include China, Africa, Central and South
America. One of the points Sengupta makes is that unemployed and unemployable
youth are the fertile ground for frustration, anger and revolt. What do we say,
“Let them eat naan?” Sengupta gives an ominous warning, Mind your young, or they will trouble you in your old age.
Sengupta states, In
the United States, nearly 17 percent of those between the ages of 16 and 29 are
neither in school nor working. (I do not think that includes the vast
number of people, especially African-America, in that age grouping who are
incarcerated.) We wonder why our inner city populations and the rural poor are
enticed into illicit, and often violent, activities. If that is so here, can we
really be surprised by uprisings in other parts of the world?
During this political campaign season, we hear some of the
candidates proclaiming they will bring jobs back to the United States. Sure, we
still have an official unemployed rate of someplace between 4.5% and 5.5% of
the population. The unofficial rate may be a percentage point of two higher. Would
some of our unemployed take the menial jobs which have been exported? Sure,
some would. If we were to reclaim all the jobs which have gone off shore, we
would only be making matters worse in those countries to which the jobs were
transferred. If the economic situation in countries, such as Indian, were exacerbated
by “bringing home those jobs,” would we not be contributing the horrid conditions
there?
If the Syrian Refugee immigration into Europe has created
problems, what would it look like if the youthful unemployed of India were to
engage in a massive immigration not only into Europe but into the United
States? What would it look like if one million young people were to immigrate
each month into Europe and the United States?
There are a myriad of ethical and economic questions and
variables which are not easily answered. I do not have the answers. I do know
Sengupta’s article raises many points of concern for me. We are told the U.S.
population is confused and frightened as we see our lives as they used to be no
longer being that way now nor into the future. We live in a world sheltered
from the realities with which much of the global population must cope daily. It
is almost as if we were on The Truman Show. Articles
like Sengupta’s give us a squinting view of the real world. Once viewing it,
what are we to do?
Good article, Wayne!
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