Beppe Grillo's Blog

One in four doesn’t make it

One in four doesn’t make it. 24.5% of Italian families are at risk of poverty. They don’t manage to pay the rent, the mortgage. They don’t use heating. They don’t even open the gas or electricity bills. They still eat, but ever more frequently they are queueing up at the Caritas soup kitchen. Some have a go at begging but they are almost excusing themselves at the same time. They lower their eyes like a beaten dog. Unemployment is above all something that especially hits the youngsters that leave the country as soon as they can. In the South, emigration has become the only possibility, just like after the war.
We are getting used to this reality as though it didn’t relate to us. An illness that always affects the others, that you have to talk about quietly with condescension. “He’s gone bust and yet he was doing so well.”, or with a barb of criticism “If he wanted to, he could find a job” or with arrogance “This couldn’t happen to us” We are becoming a nation of wretches and paradoxically it’s nothing to do with us. At least until it does come round to us. A quarter of Italians is a colossal number, equal to fifteen million people, and it’s growing. How many of us will it grow to? Once upon a time we had “panem et circences” {bread and circuses}, now we just have circences with football. We cannot transform Italy into a two level society: those who eat and those who don’t. We all need to eat a bit less and tighten our belts. The only measure that has never been mentioned by the Monti government is the “patrimonial”, a blasphemy for a banker, it hits the rich who "sono tristi se noi piangiam” {are sad if we cry} as Jannacci sang. Instead what needs proposing is the creation of a fund for a citizen’s income that’s equal for everyone who’s unemployed to cover basic needs, from housing to food shopping. Together with a citizen’s income there should be the creation of true job centres that offer a job and if you turn it down that means you would lose out on the income. No one can be left behind.

Comments

Where do all these rich people get the time to screw everyone over so thoroughly? The matter of fact is that they don't, they don't care as they are busy living their own life. The live in rich houses surrounded by rich neighbourhoods, surrounded by fences and the move in expensive cars to their workplace surrounded by fences, or some stupid ski resort surrounded by fences.
They are rich enough to not care.

The problem is that most other people are screwing over their neighbours. It were my landlord, my business partner, my commercialista, everyone that thinks i'm a "furbi foreigner" and double or triple charged me assuming i don't pay taxes while i was paying about 65%..
All these company that if you have a contract via the company instead of as a private person, that they overcharge you with triple the rate, so that any benefit that there may have been is nullified.
All these 'nudge nudge blink blink' "i know what you mean" furbi idiots that think you don't mind and want to do business with them again in the future, while all you want to do is get rid of them as soon as possible and try work with some honest enough to cheat the system to your advantage.

Maybe because Italians are such navelgazers that it may need to be spelled out more accurately. Hello, Italy, this is the rest of the world.. Globalization has arrived and technological progress is making most manual labour redundant, and soon most simple mental tasks will be made redundant as well. The abundance of jobs to be given away is over. You need to create your own jobs for the future.
A big "thank you" for the people behind Mani Pulite and Berlusconi's supporters that you've been trying to keep the world out for the last 30 years, and have been able to protect Italy from the forces of progress, but it is unstoppable. Instead of importing a slave class of Romanians and Ukrainians, maybe it is more productive to allow immigration and good jobs more high up in the market.. because what is the worth of 6 trillion euro of real estate if nobody has the money or the will to buy it.. it's a housing and wealth bubble that is unmarketable and possible four times overvalued. A non-sold house is not even worth the money put into it to build it, let alone the exaggerated asking prices.

It is time for some solidarity, and say no to the neo-fascist pseudo-austerity which only leads to increased hypocrisy because the whole situation isn't going to improve automatically. Those times are over.

Posted by: Antonio Gramsci | February 18, 2012 03:04 PM

The poorest person you can think of is 130,000 times closer to middle rich than the richest person.

Posted by: Cures Riches | February 18, 2012 01:49 AM

Italy is not alone. Spain has 5 million unemployed and young people leaving, the rest of the European Union countries have millions struggling and it is possible the worst is yet to come. Meanwhile those at the top - the 1% - are still expecting to see increases in their wealth, bonuses, pensions while paying less tax. If the wealthy and the Politicians have not seen the writing on the wall or the violence in Greece, then they had better open their eyes

Posted by: peter fieldman | February 17, 2012 07:07 PM