Our View: The state has no obligation to provide well-paid jobs for young

One of the recurring themes of the speeches and announcements by the presidential candidates is ‘helping the young’, all of whom claim this to be one of their main priorities. They all want to create job opportunities for the young, so they do not move abroad for work, their assumption being that the young are being forced to leave Cyprus for economic reasons when there is no evidence to support this.

The view that the state has an obligation to provide job opportunities for the young is ingrained in Cyprus’ political thinking that has always embraced the communist idea of state-driven economic growth. All the candidates consequently want to create an economy that offers an abundance of well-paid jobs for university graduates, which seems a commendable objective on the surface.

Nobody considers that this cultivates and promotes a sense of entitlement among the young, making them expect everything would be put on a plate for them, at the same time, acting as a disincentive to take initiative and be creative. Apart from the semi-governmental organisations, the public sector and the banks there are no well-paid jobs awaiting graduates. There are plenty of jobs at which they have to work hard and prove themselves in order to secure the desired high pay.

A dynamic economy is not created by entitled youth, expecting to land a job that is safe and well-paid. It is created by youth with drive and ambition, prepared to take risks, even if there is the possibility of failure. Growth and prosperity are achieved through the capitalist virtue of risk-taking, which would also create the better job opportunities that the presidential candidates seem to think the state can set up.

What the state should provide all the young is a good standard of education, which it tries to do. The standard would have been higher if public education was not run by teaching unions, but that is another matter. It also provides a significant number of students with free university education of a high standard. After this, youth should learn to stand on their own two feet, seeking neither help nor support from the state. They could seek a paid job, try to set up their own business, or just sit in cafes all day moaning about the lack of job opportunities in Cyprus.

The latter would be those who listened to the messages of the presidential candidates and believed that well-paid employment will go and find them while they were drinking their fredo espresso in a café because the state has a responsibility to provide it.