Unemployment: The Old Should Make Way For The Young – Pope Francis
As a way of curbing the global unemployment rate, the Catholic Pontiff, Pope Francis has proffered a solution that would help, which however would not work in Nigeria. The Holy Father in a renewed call for social justice, said that older people should be made to work less or retire early to create employment for younger generations.
Good as the suggestion is, Nigeria is however known for recycling people especially the political elite some of who have been in-and-out of government in the last 30 years meaning that the beautiful suggestion of the Pope will not be applicable in Nigeria. The Pope in his message said, “There is an urgency for a new human social pact, a new social pact for work that should reduce working hours for those at the end of their working lives, to create work for the young, who have a right and a duty to work.’’
Speaking during an audience with Catholic-linked Italian trade union CISL, Pope Francis added, “a society that forces old people to work for too long and forces an entire generation of young people not work is stupid and short-sighted’’. Pope Francis, who is 80 years this year, also criticised so-called “golden pensions,’’ which granted generous payments to selected categories of Italian workers, and said work must be accompanied by a “healthy culture of leisure, which is not laziness, but a human necessity.’’
A critic of capitalist excess, the pope has often decried Europe’s youth unemployment crisis, saying it discourages young people from starting a family. However, many economists denied that pushing older people out of the labour market would create jobs for the young.
