Pope: I fear for lost generation of unemployed (independent.ie)

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Philip Pullella – 22 July 2013
Pope Francis said today the world risks losing a generation of young people to unemployment and called for a more inclusive culture, as he headed to Brazil on his first trip outside Italy.

Speaking to journalists on board his plane, Francis expressed concern about how many young people have no jobs and condemned a “disposable” culture which also hurt the elderly.
“The world crisis is not treating young people well … We are running the risk of having a generation that does not work. From work comes a person’s dignity,” Francis said in prepared remarks to the papal press corps.

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More western leaders need to be saying this. It seems the high unemployment among the young has become an accepted fact of life, political leaders don’t seem to care much about it.
 
Perhaps the Holy Father can explain to us all how to create well-paying jobs that don’t rely on the government creating multi-trillion dollar deficits.
 
Timothysis said:
Perhaps the Holy Father can explain to us all how to create well-paying jobs that don’t rely on the government creating multi-trillion dollar deficits.
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I’m afraid that governments around the world have often created and exacerbated the problem, artificially creating unemployment through minimum wage laws and work rules that often simply keep young people from entering the work force at all, while killing business and economic activity.
 
I find it interesting and ironic that an atheist country figured out that it is a REALLY bad idea to have unemployed youth running around. China does whatever it can to keep the younger generation employed and happy, because when they don’t, the government gets overthrown.
 
His comments in context:

This first trip is to reach out to young people, not in isolation but rather within the larger fabric of society. When we isolate them, we do them an injustice because young people already belong in several ways … they belong to a family, a country, a culture and a faith. We must not isolate them, and above all, we shouldn’t isolate them within the whole of the society.
It’s true, of course, that youth are the future of a people. They’re the future because they have the strength, as young people, to move forward. But those at the other extremity of life, the elderly, are also the future of a people. A people has a future if it moves forward with both these ends – young people with their strength to go forward and the elderly because they’re the ones who offer us the wisdom of life.
Many times, I think we do an injustice to the elderly by setting them aside, as if they don’t have anything to give us. But they can give us the wisdom of life, the wisdom of the past, the wisdom of our country and our family. We need this. So, I’m going [to Brazil] to meet the youth, yes, but within their social fabric, principally with the elderly.
The global [economic] crisis is taking its toll on young people. I read last week about the percentage of young people who are unemployed. Just think, we’re running the risk of having a whole generation without work. A person draws dignity from work, the ability to earn one’s bread.
Young people at the moment are in crisis. We’ve become a little accustomed to a throw-away culture, and with the elderly and we do it far too much. With all these young people out of work, the throw-away culture is reaching them too. We must get rid of this throw-away mentality. We need a culture of inclusion, of encounter, a culture with the strength to bring everyone along in society. That’s more or less the meaning I want to give to this visit to the young … [to understand] youth within the larger society.

So he is talking about the throw-away society we have built. He is calling each one of us to have solidarity with other members of society.

Please compare this with a couple of his previous homilies:
 
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