Summary: History Future Now has been tracking the expanding numbers of young people who are unemployed in the European Union with great concern. Both Greece and Spain have youth unemployment rates that are well over 50%. Most European Union youth unemployment levels are over 20% and 10 European countries have levels over 30%. But statistics are relatively cold and don’t give you a full impression of what life really is like at those levels of unemployment. Two quotes spring to mind, Harry Truman’s truism that “Its a recession when your neighbour loses his job; its a depression when you lose yours” and Stalin’s quip: “a single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” I have just spent a week in Spain and can report that the reality on the ground is far worse than you can imagine. And, that there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
