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Italy: Building competitive economy
  • Statistics agency Istat reported Tuesday that Italy's poverty levels had almost doubled since the start of the economic crisis and dashed hopes that the country might have already emerged from its current recession. The national statistics agency said there were 2.4 million Italians living in poverty in 2007, compared to 4.8 million last year.

    Istat said almost half of the people living in poverty, 2.3 million, were in southern Italy and over one million of them were minors. It said that 65% of Italian households had cut spending. The agency added that Italy is set to post negative growth again for the third quarter.

    http://www.lagazzettadelmezzogiorno.it/english/italian-poverty-levels-double-as-recession-drags-on-no665257

  • 10 Replies sorted by
  • We are fulfilling the plans EU reserved for us, and the results are quite encouraging...

  • @gaman

    It is not plans mostly, it is just process. Fear and trembling without end :-)

  • But they still have their most importing things - much more important than poverty... which are: 'la bella figura', the Vatican, the national anthem, the football, their sunglasses, their mothers, their ice creams - and their self esteem. Not everything is bad. Italia va bene! The others are guilty! 'Non 'e giusto!' Mammaaaaaa! (50% of the italian population live outside of the country - what a beautiful country!)

  • @ gameb

    Hard to swallow but you are right, italians have to blame themselves for all this. Really said ;(

  • Our greatest fault is to continue to think that we are smarter than everyone else. There is nothing that prove it: we have one of the worst political class, but we vote for them... When I was younger I thought that the best solution would be to sell the country to someone else, maybe to the Germany, and live here as tourists. Once extinct ( we have a really low natality index) this country would be called Italien. In the meanwhile we italian would have lived in a Germany standard level paradise...

    :-)

  • @trafficarte

    Political class quality have very little to do with problems cause. Energy availability is the core factor (and oil usage in PIGS is especially high).

  • Few more optimistic points:

    In Spain new hosing permits are down to 1.585 in August 2013 – down from approximately 130.000 in September 2006 and an average between 20.000 and 30.000 in the 90s :-)

  • "Political class quality have very little to do with problems cause."

    The last "troubles" in Italy (the Minister of Justice that maneuvers to bring off the jail a friend of her family) IS the symbol of the Italy main fault: it's all about "friends", "families", "friends of other friends" and so on. No meritocracy, no responsibility. As gameb said: the others are guilty. About the Minister: she is a very esteemed one, maybe the best in the entire government.

  • The last "troubles" in Italy (the Minister of Justice that maneuvers to bring off the jail a friend of her family) IS the symbol of the Italy main fault: it's all about "friends", "families", "friends of other friends" and so on. No meritocracy, no responsibility. As gameb said: the others are guilty. About the Minister: she is a very esteemed one, maybe the best in the entire government.

    I never said that politicians are good. But they are pretty similar. :-) Fundamental problems just instantly show flaws in politicians and management.

  • Italy has a basic problem: they think that they are smarter than everybody else as @trafficarte says. But thats a world wide thing, French, Germans, Russians, British ....and Americans or Argentinians (oh my god)!!! Fuckin Chauvinisme man. All over. Who cares about all that shit? Thing is when Italians are chauvinistic, the whole world laughs about them. Ridiculous. Italy are the clowns. The worst. Who wants to deal with italians anyway? They should start to work out their good things in a humble way. Become serious. They are quite good in a lot of things. But as long as they play the idiots, everybody will take them like idiots. (Opressed idiots, opressed by Vatican, Mafia and their oppressiv society of idiocy). Symbolic: Average of an italian man to leave his mammas house is 35 years!!!! (And then they become violent). Who is surprised about that? As a kid they give you ice-cream. When you grow up you have 3 options: 1) Take over papas business 2) Shoot heroin in your veins 3) leave the country... How would you recognize an italian by night? The only one who wears sunglasses...