Overqualified: What's Wrong With European Labor Markets

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By Bryan Caplan(my favourite economist and one of the best in the world,he outsmarts scumbag like Paul Krugman 1000:1)

One of the most striking things about Denmark and Sweden: Almost everyone is overqualified for his job. The guy who sells train tickets doesn't just punch buttons and collect cash; he knows his regional transit network like the back of his hand, and eagerly helps you plan your trip.

I'm sure that most American tourists find this a welcome change of pace. Imagine a country where you never have to ask, "Could I talk to your supervisor?" But it's highly inefficient. In the U.S., the Dane who mans the ticket window would run the whole office. In Denmark, he spends 59 minutes out of 60 doing mindless, menial work.

When I explained my observation to some Swedes, there was an interesting misunderstanding. One told me: "Unskilled workers? We don't have unskilled workers." I replied, "I've seen guys picking up garbage. Isn't that unskilled?" And the Swede answered, "We have unskilled work, but not unskilled workers." My point exactly.

What's going on? Americans tend to credit Europe's better schools, but I doubt that's a major part of the story. The main reason why European workers seem so good, as many Scandinavians admitted, is that they keep semi-competent workers permanently on welfare.

It's tempting to see this approach as "more efficient" or "kinder-hearted" than ours, but it's neither. Using high-skilled workers to sell train tickets when low-skilled workers are almost as good violates the principle of comparative advantage. And it's hardly kind to create a system where workers feel unchallenged, and non-workers feel useless. The European approach may be good for flustered tourists. But for the Europeans themselves, it's a tragic waste.

I know man, it CAN'T be the better school system since their government runs it and nothing government run works.

In the U.S., our government runs our school system too.

If Caplan's observations are correct, Sweden must have much lower percentages of unskilled workers than the U.S. does. I wonder why that is? Could it be that their policy of giving welfare checks to affluent people who have kids just as much as to unemployed people who have kids helps avoid an uneducated work force? They do seem to have much lower rates of teen pregnancy.

Perhaps it's because here in Sweden education is free all the way through, even university. Plus students get money to live on while they are studying.

The missing questions:

1) Is the high skilled worker happy selling the train tickets?
2) What exactly is low skill v. high skill, anyway? We all consider fast food low skill, and yet it is a job I would truly be horrible at. Give me my so called high skill profession, and I do very well. So ... I don't believe in low skill v. high skill, just different skill. Some skills require more formal education, and others rely more on natural ability, but it is still "skill" and worthy of respect.

also good points, cdfox7.

Also learning shouldn't necessarily be linked to the job market. Maybe Swedes believe that as many people as possible should have access to a university education as a right? Knowledge advances the live's of these people. That is why they have a higher standard of living.