Unconventional thoughts about unemployment

“The presence of massive unemployment in Europe (10 to 12 percent in many of the major European countries) entails deprivations that are not well reflected in income distribution statistics. These deprivations are often downpalyed on the grounds that the European system of social security (including unemployment insurance) tends to make up for the loss of income and unemployment. But the unemployment is not merely a deficiency of income that can be made up through transfers by the state…it is also a source of far-reaching debilitating effects on individual freedom, initiative, and skills. Among its manifold effects, unemployment contributes to the “social exclusion” of some groups, and it leads to losses of self-reliance, self-confidence and psychological and physical health. Indeed it is hard to escape a sense of manifold incongruity in contemporary European attempts to move to a more self-help social climate without devising adequate policies for reducing the massive and intolerable levels of unemployment that make such self-help extremely difficult” – very true! Taken from the development guru Amartya Sen in “Development as Freedom” page 21