In Morocco, Government Jobs are Allocated By....You Won't Believe It!

EE friend JR sends this email:

Talk about moral hazards - this NPR piece on government jobs in Morocco shows how students are rewarded for protesting by getting government jobs. They keep score and whoever does the most - extra points for clashes with the police - gets you hired by the government! They even have teams--and the gov hires people from the teams with the most points.

You can't make this stuff up...

Excerpt:

"I have a degree, a master's degree in English, and I'm here ... idle without a job, without dignity, without anything," protester Abdul Rahim Momneh says.

During the Arab uprisings over the past year, political grievances have received much of the attention. But youth unemployment is also a crisis for every Arab government. In Morocco, the jobless rate is more than 30 percent for young people.

Last week, five jobless college graduates set themselves on fire to protest unemployment. One has since been reported dead. Self-immolation has become something of a trend in the region ever since a young Tunisian street vendor set himself alight in December 2010, an event that sparked the uprising there and served as a catalyst for other revolts.

Government employment is hardly a solution for joblessness, say the movement's critics. Morocco's bureaucracy is already bloated and unproductive; the huge government payroll is a financial drain, they argue.

Yet, under pressure from these protests, officials often give in, adding a few more positions. Organizers hand the government a list of the most dedicated activists to choose from.
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Now, is this a euvoluntary employment arrangement? The government hires the people who are most likely to hurt themselves most seriously. But to prove you are going to hurt yourself a lot, you actually have to do it.

It's not euvoluntary if I hold a gun to YOUR head. But is it euvoluntary if I hold a gun to MY head?