In America, you can look at the statistics about unemployment, but those are deceiving. I don’t put too much faith in numbers tabulated by some “experts.” I prefer to look at reality. It is almost impossible for me to get people in America to do anything. There is always sluggishness, arguments, and stupidity. When I talk to my Italian friends (relatively new arrivals) they claim that Americans have the best work ethic they have seen in their lives — much better than Italy in their opinion. Perhaps it is the type of people in America who would stoop to work for the likes of me. No matter how well I pay, it is not good enough. People here who I come into contact with are either incompetent, mentally somewhat ill, or just plain don’t want to cooperate. That includes people who work for others who I do business with as well. India is somewhat better with work ethic, although competency in BPO companies is so low that I shudder to think of anyone actually hiring one — any one.
But, in Spain, Italy, Somalia, Turkey, and so many other countries, unemployment is sky high. The countries doing outsourcing like India and the Philippines seem to be at all time lows. For whatever reasons, they have jobs. No wonder it is hard to get them to even return emails for outsourcing gigs. I’m coming to the conclusion that unemployment might be a good thing. At least people have some incentive to get back to you and at least try.
Southern Europe don’t seem to be facing any huge political turmoil. Sure, there are the usual strikes and demonstrations, but they are not going to have a coup d’etat anytime soon. They don’t have rebel forces fighting for control assuming you don’t count the recent Syrian imports in that statistic. Why is their unemployment so high? And isn’t it possible that the rest of Europe or America could find a way to employ them?
Somalia is a much more difficult case. They have a war-torn country and it is not safe to do business there. But, what if a big corporation bought some land and had their own mini-army to protect their investment? That seems to be the only way to do business out in the wild.
Personally, these countries with high unemployment need to get into outsourcing. That is a sure-fire way to reduce unemployment to about 6%. It worked for India and Manila, it can work for Spain too. They will need to have good English skills and other technical skills. But, if India can do it, Spain can do it too. After all, Spain is more culturally similar to the countries doing the buying than India.