Investment in Human Capital
Investment in Human Capital
“Initiative and responsibility, to feel oneself useful and even indispensable, are vital needs of the human soul,” wrote Simone Weil, a great defender of labour, in 1949. She noted: “Complete privation... is the case of the unemployed person, even if he receives assistance to the extent of being able to feed, clothe and house himself.” So, to deny someone work is to deny meeting a need of the human soul. Looking at present-day unemployment figures in Italy, particularly among young people, one can only guess the extent to which these vital needs remain unmet, how many wounded souls will grow up without ever realising their plans and hopes, without nurturing their own self-worth.
The government does not view human capital as a potential investment; the government does not invest in the education system.
Yet training to the greatest extent must be ensured in order to direct investment into human capital. And this requires raising the education system to a qualitatively new level.
Investment in Human Capital—the Eurasian Confederation
The project includes the following dimensions:
1) Family as a centre of life, as a foundation of a socially and economically stable society.
2) Compulsory education up to the age of 25.
3) Basic grants for all students, incentive programmes.
4) Student cafeterias and government subsidies covering 67% of meal costs.
5) Government funding of education until higher secondary education is completed.
6) Government subsidies and incentives for university students throughout the training period.
7) Establishment of a Student club, fr om primary school to university. The best students will attend additional classes and gain academic credits, which will help improve school education in general.
8) International summer training courses (during the summer holidays) paid by the States parties based on the principle of equal exchange: language courses, internships with companies, academic credit. This will raise the level of international collaboration as part of human capital development.
9) Establishment of an International Human Skills platform to record periods of training abroad, internship with international companies, professional competencies gained, and the international level of human capital integration.
1) Family
Family creation must be supported by dedicated programmes.
Support for parenting: maternal bonus of €700 a month (net) for 36 months.
Lump-sum allowance of €3,600.00 (net—tax-free) for the birth of a first child.
Lump-sum allowance of €7,200.00 (net—tax-free) for the birth of a second child.
Lump-sum allowance of €10,800.00 (net—tax-free) for the birth of a third child.
Lump-sum allowance of €14,400.00 (net—tax-free) for the birth of a fourth child.
Lump-sum allowance of €18,000.00 (net—tax-free) for the birth of a fifth child.
Financial support for hiring a government nanny (this will create jobs for students who undergo the relevant training or vocational courses under a government programme).
Allowing for remote or in-person work for the mother (further education courses, training courses, grants for mothers).
Support for new settlers (free housing and land provided by the government) for creating citizens’ committees to settle unsettled territories in order to build and populate new cities (a minimum of five children per family).
Grandparents who create memory and tradition committees to pass them on to children and prevent people’s traditions and values from disappearing will receive benefits in the form of tax cuts, grocery and rent discounts.
2) Compulsory education
Compulsory education up to the age of 25 (older citizens will also have to study on further education courses).
Full government funding of education from school to university.
School education must be completely revised, thoroughly analysed and orientated on preparing high-level specialists with a concrete goal of having students achieve complete awareness. Awareness of international events must become a mainstay of each training course. Young people who achieve complete awareness will fill the ranks of future leaders and politicians whose only goal will be to improve future forms of public administration, both nationally and internationally. The well-being of countries and flourishing of peoples in all areas of life must become the norm. A person is a valuable resource at any age, and everyone must be involved in plans for future development and can become an actor on the national and international political stage. Project research and development must be supported taking into account the resources available on national territory. This was understood by the English economist Alfred Marshall, who wrote: “The most valuable of all capital is that invested in human beings.” The ability to attract population, especially people with a high level of education, can have a substantial effect on the accumulation of human capital and, consequently, on the economic development of a territory.
3) Minimum wage. Education requires considerable effort and the daily eight-hour-long labour students put in to prepare for professional activities cannot be rewarded solely by grades. Every one of us must have an opportunity to satisfy their desires and think about the future. So the government could institute a daily salary for learning, which would become the first type of savings in a person’s life. Additionally, instant cash prizes should be instituted for those with excellent average grades in all subjects.
4) School cafeterias
“Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano” — “Pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body.” These words contain an absolute truth: a healthy body is required for a healthy mind. It is important to accumulate profound knowledge about the products of one’s land, study the history and distinguishing features of traditional production across regions, establish fruitful cooperation with crop and livestock farmers. Studying food and products should be encouraged in order to achieve the end goal of raising a younger generation of innovative farmers with deep knowledge of and connection with their native land. Knowledge must be transmitted from one generation to the next, because a people without a past is a people without identity or a future.
5) Education costs
A government that does not place children’s education in the country front and centre will inevitably face an identity crisis among its own political elite. The State, like a parent of its nation, must take complete charge of people’s enlightenment, setting a worthy example.
6) Government grants and subsidies
University courses should incorporate flexible education models allowing students to collect both academic credits and financial bonuses. Outstanding results must be recognised with material rewards, individual students must be rewarded and motivated in order to nurture a sense of participation in serving the country and people, and create role models. The nation and people also need heroes in the education field.
7) Student clubs
Even in elementary school, student clubs will give pupils an opportunity to develop organisational and learning skills, build the school library and a dedicated school website (wh ere learning information will be made available). Moreover, additional classes for in-depth study of school subjects and evening out knowledge levels will be offered on weekday afternoons and Saturdays.
Students who help elementary school pupils with learning will gain academic credits for these activities. Learning will become a motivational game.
8) Summer international training courses
On the basis of international agreements, Country A offers its students the opportunity to study abroad at the expense of Country B while offering the corresponding opportunity to students from Country B. The students will have to enrol on courses on the host country language and ones dedicated to its traditions and culture. The end goal is a profound understanding of the traditions and rules of the host country. Other opportunities will include practice-oriented internships at companies in the host country, paid for by the interns’ country of origin. These international education programmes will be compulsory and practice-oriented starting from secondary school onwards. This approach will help develop mutual compatibility of human capital and help the host country become familiar with the best foreign workers and specialists temporarily residing on its soil.
Then we will gain human capital that we will be able to direct to areas most in need of highly competent specialists.
9) Building a dedicated platform
Development of a platform aimed at improving the qualifications of human capital and equipped with an international database will offer people a broad range of professional opportunities. Given the deep economic crises of recent years, which have demonstrated the fragility of the entire industrial and economic system, such an initiative is especially pertinent. The platform will make available a wealth of different information: on international internship programmes, practical internships at companies abroad, professional skills attained (the data must be continuously updated), as well as mutual international compatibility and mobility of human capital.
How can the transition period be eased and the value of human capital increased?
By setting up a EURASIAN CONFEDERATION.
A confederation is a union of countries, usually neighbouring ones, that, while retaining full independence and sovereignty, unite to achieve common goals, mainly in the international domain, through dedicated institutions.
The starting point is usually a unitary or separate state, and the process of integrative evolution leads to a confederation, while the autonomy of the participants remains extremely high. Constitutions of individual countries are usually preserved and as few powers as possible are delegated to the confederative body.
League of Nations of the Mediterranean
Another important point should be added to this project: establishment of a League of Nations of the Mediterranean. This initiative will open up numerous economic and industrial possibilities, mobilise and make effective use of the colossal human capital of the African continent.
This concerns the 22 countries located on the Mediterranean coast. The northern (or European) coast includes, west to east: Spain, France, the Principality of Monaco, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania and Greece. The eastern (or Asian) coast includes, north to south: Türkiye, Cyprus, Syrian Arab Republic, Lebanon, Israel and the State of Palestine. The southern (or African) coast includes, east to west: Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.
1. Education
2. Regulation of mass migration flows
3. Effective cooperation and favourable terms with OPEC+
4. Technology export
5. Universal access to water
The main reasons for Africa’s delayed development
Exploitation of mineral and natural resources, use of cheap and plentiful labour, policies of European countries aimed at extracting profits for their own benefit, as well as extremely meager investment by colonial powers in colonised territories — all these factors laid the foundations for Africa’s so-called “delayed” development. The delay, which later characterised and continues to characterise a variety of African regions, also arose owing to radical change in approaches to land management. Many territories, especially fertile land or regions with rich mineral deposits or vital natural resources such as water, were confiscated, and their lawful owners and/or agriculturalists were either exiled or had to work these lands as slaves or for a pittance. Many of them became landless squatters. In other cases, European colonisers themselves imposed the types of crop to be grown, which led to spread of monoculture farms specialising in growing only peanuts or cocoa.
