2 ms·

There's a difference between profits and revenue.

rsj_hn 6y ago
You are fighting a losing battle trying to bring math and economic constraints into what is a parade of hand-wringing about poor workers who are being exploited by fat cat owners. Bringing up that these businesses have been losing money in Italy -- and really have no incentive to continue operating there -- goes against the narrative. After these companies close up shop, taxpayers can pay the unemployed workers who at least aren't being exploited. There is a reason why Italy historically has a huge gray market, particularly young people working under the table, as it's tough to operate legally in Italy unless you have both a monopoly and pricing power, or are at least politically connected enough to avoid many of your financial obligations, which on paper are quite burdensome. That creates a vicious circle where the government is drained of funds as income goes unreported, so they make it harder on those legal companies left, which then either need to sell out to a politically protected monopoly or themselves go into the gray market and the cycle gets worse. The problem with these delivery companies was they they tried to be legal -- only a fool or a monopolist does that in Italy. With the right connections they would have been protected. You have similar problems in Greece, for similar reasons. Both of these nations have shadow economies that are estimated to be 20% of GDP. To put that into perspective, the Government share of GDP is 50%, so of the share of GDP attributed to the private sector, 40% of that consists of unreported income. Italy ranks 137 out of 189 in terms of tax evasion, the biggest problem being unreported business income. https://www.oecd.org/tax/administration/italy-tax-administration-a-review-of-institutional-and-governance-aspects.pdf https://www.oecd.org/tax/administration/italy-tax-administra... This was before Covid. Now, who knows what state their business sector is in. It's a big mess, and no one has been unable to unravel it. Staying away from that mess, unless you know how to play the game, is a good idea.

You are fighting a losing battle trying to bring math and economic constraints into what is a parade of hand-wringing about poor workers who are being exploited by fat cat owners. Bringing up that these businesses have been losing money in Italy -- and really have no incentive to continue operating there -- goes against the narrative. After these companies close up shop, taxpayers can pay the unemployed workers who at least aren't being exploited. There is a reason why Italy historically has a huge gray market, particularly young people working under the table, as it's tough to operate legally in Italy unless you have both a monopoly and pricing power, or are at least politically connected enough to avoid many of your financial obligations, which on paper are quite burdensome. That creates a vicious circle where the government is drained of funds as income goes unreported, so they make it harder on those legal companies left, which then either need to sell out to a politically protected monopoly or themselves go into the gray market and the cycle gets worse. The problem with these delivery companies was they they tried to be legal -- only a fool or a monopolist does that in Italy. With the right connections they would have been protected. You have similar problems in Greece, for similar reasons. Both of these nations have shadow economies that are estimated to be 20% of GDP. To put that into perspective, the Government share of GDP is 50%, so of the share of GDP attributed to the private sector, 40% of that consists of unreported income. Italy ranks 137 out of 189 in terms of tax evasion, the biggest problem being unreported business income. https://www.oecd.org/tax/administration/italy-tax-administration-a-review-of-institutional-and-governance-aspects.pdf https://www.oecd.org/tax/administration/italy-tax-administra... This was before Covid. Now, who knows what state their business sector is in. It's a big mess, and no one has been unable to unravel it. Staying away from that mess, unless you know how to play the game, is a good idea.