What you describe is a pretty good argument about why supply side economics alone can't describe our economy adequately. If nobody has the money to create the demand, the economy will shrink.
Can you imagine what it is like to live in a country where that friend of a friend of yours is the _average_ young person?
To answer that rethorical question, let me just point out that we won't have heared the last of the crisis in Southern Europe.
My brother has several friends in Ireland and he's described their outlook similarly. They have a sort of government stipend and some of them can find odd jobs (odd as in strange, one of them is a part time fire eater) but for the most part they simply can't find steady work. The demand for low-cost work vs. the demand for a living wage is definitely at work all around the world.
Although not geographically, Ireland definitely is part of the "Southern Europe" of the parent's comment; it was one of the countries hit by the recession the quickest and hardest.
Can you imagine what it is like to live in a country where that friend of a friend of yours is the _average_ young person?
To answer that rethorical question, let me just point out that we won't have heared the last of the crisis in Southern Europe.