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I have family in the south and have visited a few times in the last 15 years. A lot of these places have never really recovered since the 2008 crash. You can s

I have family in the south and have visited a few times in the last 15 years. A lot of these places have never really recovered since the 2008 crash. You can see many empty half built buildings. Closed nightclubs. Maybe half the businesses open that there used to. Right before coronavirus many people were investing in fixing up old buildings for AirBnBs. Who knows if they’ll ever get that money back. Tourism is really all a lot of these places have left. The kids all want to leave for Germany or Australia where they know they can afford to live with an okay job. There’s no work for tradesmen that would have worked on building-related trades. Graffiti is way more common everywhere than it was 10 years ago. It’s just really really hard to see.

MomoXenosaga 5y ago
Things can always change. I know people who fled Amsterdam because it was a junkie ridden slum. Houses in that area now go for 1.5 million euro.
- SwanRonson 5y ago
  There’s a lot more to it than that. Amsterdam has a very large local port and a ton of tourism. This part of southern Italy has been subsidized for at least a decade. If this was Venice or Cinque Terre I’d be all over it but it’s unlikely that these areas will succeed in the same way unless something huge changes.
ArkanExplorer 5y ago
VAT in Italy: 22% Income Up to €15,000: 23% €28,000 – €55,000: 38% Employer payroll tax: 35% Employee payroll tax: 10% VAT in Australia: 10% Income up to €12,000: 0% €24,000 – €58,000: 32.5% Employee payroll tax: 5.5% Employee payroll tax: 9.5% This is why people are moving to Australia. Where does this money go in Italy? To pensions (17% of GDP) and a corrupt bureaucracy. If Italy is serious about climbing out of its demographic death spiral, it needs to raise the pension age to 70 pronto, record all welfare payments against assets owned and reclaim them at death, and adopt English as an official second language. With the savings they should dramatically cut taxes, especially VAT and payroll taxes which distort the economy and drive businesses towards unofficial hiring and cash transactions.

MomoXenosaga 5y ago

Things can always change. I know people who fled Amsterdam because it was a junkie ridden slum. Houses in that area now go for 1.5 million euro.

SwanRonson 5y ago
There’s a lot more to it than that. Amsterdam has a very large local port and a ton of tourism. This part of southern Italy has been subsidized for at least a decade. If this was Venice or Cinque Terre I’d be all over it but it’s unlikely that these areas will succeed in the same way unless something huge changes.

ArkanExplorer 5y ago

VAT in Italy: 22% Income Up to €15,000: 23% €28,000 – €55,000: 38% Employer payroll tax: 35% Employee payroll tax: 10% VAT in Australia: 10% Income up to €12,000: 0% €24,000 – €58,000: 32.5% Employee payroll tax: 5.5% Employee payroll tax: 9.5% This is why people are moving to Australia. Where does this money go in Italy? To pensions (17% of GDP) and a corrupt bureaucracy. If Italy is serious about climbing out of its demographic death spiral, it needs to raise the pension age to 70 pronto, record all welfare payments against assets owned and reclaim them at death, and adopt English as an official second language. With the savings they should dramatically cut taxes, especially VAT and payroll taxes which distort the economy and drive businesses towards unofficial hiring and cash transactions.