Depression, suicide, Unemployment - and the solution

I've been on LinkedIn for years, never used it, but there is a discussion on depression and suicide on the European Green list here, and I've finally jumped in, to see if anything happens. This is my bit:



"The main point is how to fight the crisis, not just reduce its cost." Agreed. Economic depression and psychological depression are interlinked. As Greens, it is up to us to try to change the socio-economic conditions.

We know that there is an immense amount of work that needs to be done to heal and improve not just our environment but also our society. It is totally irrational to have a significant proportion of the fit and able workforce standing idle while all this work needs to be done. It is not just the well-known work in energy conservation and renewable energy technology that we speak of in the Green New Deal, but also work in many other areas of the green sector of the economy:

1 energy conservation
2 renewable energy technologies
3 energy efficient goods manufacture
4 pollution control technology
5 waste minimisation
6 repair
7 recycling
8 water management
9 sustainable agriculture
10 forestry and timber use
11 countryside management
12 housing - new building and refurbishment
13 improvements to visual environment
14 public transport
15 education and training
16 counselling, caring and healing
17 community work
18 leisure and tourism
19 innovation, research and development
20 any business which passes a certain threshold in its environmental audit.

A simple minor change to welfare benefit rules can transform welfare into a Green Wage Subsidy, as suggested here: http://www.greenhealth.org.uk/GreenWageSubsidy.htm

Is it possible that the Greens in Europe could come together in pressing the EU and our Governments to make the necessary changes to get Europe, especially Europe's young people, into good, constructive, effective work, and thus address the epidemic of hopelessness, depression and suicide?