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Are Italy's problems related to the hyper socialism in the country? It's something I have heard many Americans say about Europe.

• toomuchtodo 9y ago
  It’s easy for Americans to be misinformed as to the cause of the struggles Europe faces, and likewise for Europeans knowing the plight of Americans.
• m_fayer 9y ago
  The countries that best embody what Americans think of as "European socialism" are actually the Nordic countries, which are relatively prosperous, innovative, and not corrupt by Western standards. Italy, to the best of my understanding, is still a collection of unruly tribes most of which function under the "I'll take my crook over their crook" mentality, deeply suspicious and corrupt, all united by a thin layer of quasi-democratic practice (theater).
• emodendroket 9y ago
  Italy is by no stretch of the imagination "hyper-socialist."
• qubex 9y ago
  Italy is not ”hyper-socialist”; presupposing it is merely renders conversation about the causes difficult. Rather, the country’s growth model was for decades based on a manufacturing economy whose competitiveness was sustained by progressive devaluation of the currency, for as long as one was available. Similarly, growth was funded by public debt whose affordability derived from inflation. The houses somebody mentions: those are mainly owned by the people themselves, as a manner of protecting their savings. Italy’s been brought down not by socialism but by incomplete, inchoate, puerile mismanagement rooted in a misunderstanding in what capitalism actually is.