Bailing out Spain or not will be on investors lips later this year. Meanwhile, the huge economic problems of Spain are hitting the unemployed, especially the young population. The “lost” generation is about to lose all faith in the social system. Austerity is now a reality. From Bloomberg.

More than 4 million Spaniards are jobless in a double-diprecession that is hitting young people hardest. More than half of 15-to-24 year-olds are unemployed, and 37 percent of those 25 to 34 live with their parents. Rather than starting families and building careers, many young people spend their days playing video games and watching television. As their skills stagnate, they risk falling behind permanently, said Katherine Newman, a sociologist and dean at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

“For the rest of their lives, they’re damaged,” said Newman, who has written about labor and families in Spain. “They don’t recover occupationally, their earnings are depressed for 20 years, they don’t marry at the same rate.”

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