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Italian here. AMA :-)

by napolux 8y ago

youeseh 8y ago
Dear token Italian: I thought your new government was Italy-first. What happened? Austerity continues?
- lou1306 8y ago
  We're now in the age of careless public expenditure (a weird form of UBI that actually is an unemployment benefit, early retirements, and so on) and tax cuts that only benefit the upper class. Or so I've heard, since the government has yet to find the money to do any of these things. Meanwhile, the weak economic growth we were having until last year is gone.
- token_italian 8y ago
  Italian here: - unfortunately most of the people in Italy (with the highest amount of votes) are low-wage populists, so politics are going in that direction (see five star movement) - there is a permeating sense of social envy against "the rich", the problem is what is considered "rich" in Italy are people that earn more than 1500 euros a month,net...almost all new laws are being created to take wealth from "the rich" (which really means the ones that are "not poor") and redistribute it to populists that don't work or produce minimal wealth -add to that the extreme ignorance of politicians and population alike (we have a flat tax that isn't flat, a universal basic income that is neither basic nor universal, but most people don't even know what the names mean)...a recipe for disaster As a result, productive people live in a constant state of psychological stress because you never know how the government is going to screw you next year (forced withdrawal from your bank account? raising capital gains taxes? raising taxes on income?) and are constantly bombarded by newspapers with headlines like "we're going to tax 'the rich' in order to give "universal basic income" to the unemployed) As someone who comes from a normal low-middle class family and has been clawing his way up the social ladder for the past 10 years, the situation is almost unbearable as you constantly feel the entire country is against you and is fathoming new ways to rob you of your hard earned money, almost all the productive youngsters I know are considering moving elsewhere because you can't really live in a constant state of frustration and anger
- token_italian 8y ago
  I would also add the situation with illegal immigration in the past few years... Imagine earning 1200 usd/month, then after struggling for several years you manage to claw your way to a salary that pays 5000/month, only to find out you're being taxed at 2-3x the rate you were before, and you're really just netting 2000/mo Then you go to work every morning and see a local hotel with 15 illegal immigrants sunbathing (government structures were overflowing so they started using normal hotels to host immigrants), and you're fully aware these hotels are paid for by receiving government subsides (funded with the aforementioned huge taxes). That's just one of the several dozens of annoying situations you live with every day

Italian here. AMA :-)

youeseh 8y ago

Dear token Italian: I thought your new government was Italy-first. What happened? Austerity continues?

lou1306 8y ago
We're now in the age of careless public expenditure (a weird form of UBI that actually is an unemployment benefit, early retirements, and so on) and tax cuts that only benefit the upper class. Or so I've heard, since the government has yet to find the money to do any of these things. Meanwhile, the weak economic growth we were having until last year is gone.
token_italian 8y ago
Italian here: - unfortunately most of the people in Italy (with the highest amount of votes) are low-wage populists, so politics are going in that direction (see five star movement) - there is a permeating sense of social envy against "the rich", the problem is what is considered "rich" in Italy are people that earn more than 1500 euros a month,net...almost all new laws are being created to take wealth from "the rich" (which really means the ones that are "not poor") and redistribute it to populists that don't work or produce minimal wealth -add to that the extreme ignorance of politicians and population alike (we have a flat tax that isn't flat, a universal basic income that is neither basic nor universal, but most people don't even know what the names mean)...a recipe for disaster As a result, productive people live in a constant state of psychological stress because you never know how the government is going to screw you next year (forced withdrawal from your bank account? raising capital gains taxes? raising taxes on income?) and are constantly bombarded by newspapers with headlines like "we're going to tax 'the rich' in order to give "universal basic income" to the unemployed) As someone who comes from a normal low-middle class family and has been clawing his way up the social ladder for the past 10 years, the situation is almost unbearable as you constantly feel the entire country is against you and is fathoming new ways to rob you of your hard earned money, almost all the productive youngsters I know are considering moving elsewhere because you can't really live in a constant state of frustration and anger
token_italian 8y ago
I would also add the situation with illegal immigration in the past few years... Imagine earning 1200 usd/month, then after struggling for several years you manage to claw your way to a salary that pays 5000/month, only to find out you're being taxed at 2-3x the rate you were before, and you're really just netting 2000/mo Then you go to work every morning and see a local hotel with 15 illegal immigrants sunbathing (government structures were overflowing so they started using normal hotels to host immigrants), and you're fully aware these hotels are paid for by receiving government subsides (funded with the aforementioned huge taxes). That's just one of the several dozens of annoying situations you live with every day