26% of the Spanish population (more women than men), 12.3 million people (2.6 minors), are at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Although the figure was reduced in the last year, the report of the European Network for the Fight against Poverty (EAPN-ES), which Celeste López detailed last week in this newspaper, is like a slap in the face. One in three people who are poor or at risk of being poor are in paid work and more than 1.4 million have higher education (an exclusion group that has doubled since 2008).
The paradox is that employment is created and the level of education is higher than ever. But having a job and higher education no longer guarantee, not financial solvency, but the minimum resources to live. Rising expenses such as housing, services or food leave the budget of many families short, reduced by job insecurity and low wages. There are already companies that complain about the lack of commitment of young employees. But most cannot become independent even after entering the labor market.
Many experts warn of the social and long-term consequences (starting with late and declining motherhood, young people who will retire late and poorer...) The material effects for many families, lack of housing, being cold or roasting of heat, poor nutrition, children who can't even do extracurricular activities... these are urgent.
But in addition, there is this vital anxiety, this discouragement that spreads among young people (they express it in every survey), who do not see how to change the situation and which makes them think small; it even overcomes the desire of many to eat the world.
The son of some friends spent his adolescence saying that he only aspired to be a civil servant. At the last minute, he had a technological revelation. Is it worth insisting the child go to university, study four or five years at least, to end up in a job, be it gray or stressful, painful and poorly paid? However, yes, there will always be more promising exits for someone with an education. Although it is not an exciting prospect.
Either we turn the labor economic model around or we need to greatly increase public aid to young people, to families with minors and dependents... I don't know if it will be sustainable, but neither is a life without almost expectations.
