The most important problems facing Italy and solutions to the problems
QUICKLY IMPROVING THE ECONOMY
Italy’s awfull economy hurts us all of us directly in many ways. We live every day with financial anxiety because of the cost of groceries, electricity, and housing go up every day but our salaries do not, our lack of financial resources make it very difficult to improve our deteriorating healthcare and education systems, and inefficient public transportation, and our retirement system doesn’t have the money to pay more than retirement payments that are a challenge to live on.
In the last 10 years a million young adults, mostly between the ages of 25-34, left Italy to find jobs in other countries. Along with 10 million families being torn apart by Italy’s brain drain, Italy invested 140 billion euros in the education of those 10 million of our young Italians. Italy spends an average of 12,000 euros per year to educate a student so over 12 years of attending public schools, Italy invested Italy invested 140 billion euros to educate the 10 million young people who left Italy. Unless our economy quickly improves, more young Italians will leave Italy and we will continue to spend billion of euros to educate young people who benefit countries other than Italy.
Don’t believe political leaders when they tell your that improving the economy is too difficult for an ordinary person to understand because it only takes common sense to understand that the key to improving an economy is smart government investment in private businesses like manufacturing and farming, and public infrastructure like healthcare, education and public transportation immediately produces thousands of new-good paying jobs while improving our healthcare and educational systems and investment in manufacturing and farming allows us to buy lower cost products and food while producing thousands of new, good-paying jobs.
There are 100s of examples of governments in other countries investing a relatively small amount of money to start large projects that improve a country’s economy while providing lower the cost of essentials like electricity. The Moroccan government only contributed 2% of the cost to build Noor Ouarzazate Solar Complex, the world’s largest solar farm while the other 98% was furnished by bank loans that will be paid back by the solar farm company, not the Moroccan government. The solar plant created 13,000 new, good-paying jobs and is generating enough inexpensive electricity to provide enough cheap electricity to power Salerno, Giugliano in Campania, Torre del Greco, Pozzuoli, and Casoria.
WASTING 13.5 BILLION ON AN UNECESSARY AND RECKLESSLY OVERPRICED MESSINA BRIDGE
Spending 13.5 billion euros to build the Messina bridge linking Italy to Sicily that is unnecessary, overpriced and obviously be much better used to help solve some of our important problems. Turkey’s Çanakkale suspension bridge was completed in 2022, has a total length of 4606 meters which is 1/3 longer than the Messina Bridge and cost a total 2.5 billion euros to build which is 11 billion euros less than the Messina Bridge. Our governmen tells us that the Messina Bridge will add 100,000 new jobs but the Çanakkale Bridge created only 5,000 new jobs. The claim that the Messian Bridge would create 100,000 is clearly preposterous because our entire postal service has 120,000 employees.
Although there are hundreds of ways to demonstrate the riduclousness of spending 13.5 for an unnecessary and ridiculously overpriced bridge, using the money to improve our educational system clearly makes the point. If 13.5 billion euros was invested in education, every one of our 31,582 public primary, lower secondary and upper secondary schools would receive 414,000 euros to pay teachers more, buy up-to-date teaching materials and equipment, and renovate dilapidated school buildings.
HEALTHCARE
Our Healthcare system has absurdly long wait times to be seen by a doctor, outdated diagnostic and curative equipment, a shortage of qualified doctors and nurses and crumbling hospital buildings. The refusal of our political leaders to invest money into our healthcare has resulted in a healthcare system that worsens every year and also passes up the opportunity to create thousands of new, good-paying jobs by hiring doctors and nurses, increasing the demand of manufacturers for modern healthcare equipment which would require manufacturers to hire more employees, and the construction industry would hire more employees needed to renovate our hospitals and clinics.
EDUCATION
The purpose of education is to help our children learn, grow intellectually and eventually contribute to society by being trained on technologically, modern equipment so that they can perform their responsibilities at jobs when they become adults. For decades, Italy’s public school system has failed to adequately help our children grow intellectually and prepare them for adulthood. We have the 3rd largest EU economy, yet teacher’s salaries are second from the bottom of all EU countries, our schools our using outdated computers and other equipment, class sizes are too large to provide students with individual attention, and school buildings are becoming more dilapodated every year.
YOUNG ADULTS: UNEMPLOYMENT, LOW SALARIES, AND EXCESSIVELY HIGH COST OF LIVING
Are you a young man unable to find a job that pays you enough money to have a social life, get married or stop living in your parent’s home? Are you a young woman unable to find a job that pays you enough money so that you can take care of your own financial needs without relying on anyone else? Are you a university student who can’t afford housing?
The average unemployment rate of 15-29-year old citizens living in EU countries is 12% while Italy’s unemployment rate for 15-29-year olds is an embarrassing 16%, second worst of all EU countries. Due to runaway costs for housing and food, many young Italians live with daily financial anxiety and see no possibility for a better financial future. It only takes our political leaders to wisely invest in public infrastructure like health care and education and privately owned manufacturing companies and farms to create hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs for our young adults so that Italy’s youth can live with financial dignity instead of living with financial anxiety.
GENDER PAY GAP
Women employed in privately owned companies earn 21% less than their male colleagues for the same job even though Article 3 of the Constitution prohibits any form of discrimination based on gender. Wage discrimination results in families having less money to spend on food, housing, opportunities for our children and relaxation activities like entertainment, and eventually women receive lower monthly retirement payments than men. Private companies are required to provide the government with a report every year detailing the salary difference of women compared to men doing the same job. There has been no effort by the government to audit those annual reports to fine companies that are responsible for the gender pay gap so that the gender pay gap can be reduced every year.
CLIMATE CHANGE
In 2024, droughts, floods and fires cost Italy 140 billion euros to rebuild houses, apartment and commercial buildings, and lost revenue in commerce mostly by farmers. The most effective way to fight climate change is the government investing in companies that produce clean energy with solar panels, batteries, wind and hydroelectric power systems, and supporting the modernization of zero-emission railways and public transportation systems.
While our political leaders tell us that the Italian government doesn’t have the money to invest in big clean energy producing projects, there are 100s of examples of other governments in the West investing a relatively small amount of money to develop clean and low-cost energy. The U.S. has 60 companies that are creating clean energy from solar panels on land that is also being by farmers to grow crops and raise animals. In Texas, there is a 730 hectares solar-agriculture farm that is generating enough electricity to provide cheap electricity to a city the size of Turin. In addition to producing a tremendous amount of cheap electricity, the solar farm land is being used to feed 3,000 sheep that graze on the land for free. The U.S. government’s investment is only providing a 10% tax credit on future profits of the solar company under the condition that the solar company buy all of its solar panels from U.S. manufacturers. In the long run, the 10% tax credit will cost the U.S. government nothing because solar panel manufacturers that sell solar panels and equipment to the solar farm will pay taxes on its profits and hire more employees that will will generate more taxes paid to the U.S. government. Southern Italy has thousands and thousands of unused hectares that could be used for a large solar-agricultural farm that would cost the Italian government nothing in the long-term and create thousands of new jobs in Southern Italy that are desperately needed.
VIOLENCE
AGAINST
WOMEN
31% of Italian women have suffered physical and or sexual violence. The rate of violence against women continues to climb because our government doesn’t make sure that laws are enforced with severe penalites of jail time. We can quickly improve protection of women against violence by making the men in women’s lives understand how violence can happen to their daughters and wives, and stop supporting politicians say that rape happens because women wear short skirts and drink alcohol.
RETIREMENT
With one of the oldest populations in the world and a low birth rate, Italy has too few workers to support the pensions of our retirees. Our politicians should be embarrassed that the 2025 budget increases retirees payments by only 1.8 euros per month. It is obvious that Italy needs more babies who will grow up, get jobs and support our retirement system, yet our politial leaders either don’t know or don’t care that for women to have more babies, the government must provide affordable daycare.
LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
Same-sex relationships are documented as far back as 4,000 years ago, yet deeply ingrained societal norms, religious beliefs, personal fears, lack of understanding, and negative stereotypes still make possible despicable discrimination in Italy. Discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community in the workplace greatly reduces their opportunity to live without financial anxiety, and adversely affects Italy’s economy by increasing unemployment of members of the LGBTQ community. One of the hearbreaking effects of discrimination against same-sex couples is denying the couple the right to adopt one of the 12,000 children living in foster homes and provide the adopted child with a good family.
FAILURE
TO PAY TAXES
Some estimates show that 27% of Italians don’t pay income taxes which deprives the government of 50% of its potential tax revenue. Lax enforcement of tax laws is primarily due to political parties that afraid to lose the votes of those not paying income taxes.
LEGALIZED CORRUPTION ALLOWED BECAUSE OF NO CONFLICT OF INTEREST LAWS
A conflict of interest is when a politican has a financial interest in a private busines and the politician makes decisions, like awarding government contracts, that increase the profits of the business in which he has a financial interest. There are more than 100 politicans in Italy who have documented financial interests in companies and there are many more politicans who have conflicts of interest that are not known because the financial interest is in the name of someone other than the politician.
Of the 28 EU countries only Austria, Hungary and Italy do not have conflict of interest laws. Passing a conflict of interest law is necessary to end leagalized corruption but that will only happen if a common sense political party like Oltre has a significant influence in the governing coalition.