This year I had the chance to celebrate the Thanksgiving with some American friends of mine. I am completely Italian and I still have many doubts about celebrating Halloween in our country or having a Black Friday here. But I am the same one who didn’t believe McDonald’s had a chance in the country of pizza and I am still dubious about any business for Starbucks here. But I was proved wrong, so I gladly enjoyed the thanksgiving dinner in Rome with some dear American friends.
But what do I have to thank for as an Italian? I lost my job for typical Italian nonsense: projects stalled for years, that are restarted only to be blocked again – foreign investors fled (who can blame them?) and the company closed. Thank you, Italy!
When you are over a half-century old, there’s little to be done here: you’re too young to retire and too old for being employed again. Personnel is a great cost to employers. The government is pushing to decrease taxation for companies that hire young people – no country for old men here, especially if you hold a science degree.
This is the country where, recently, a highly advanced nuclear physics experiment has been blocked by a regional government because the administrators feared the radioactivity involved would have harmed people, polluted water like the nuclear reactor at Fukushima; really, that was the comparison they used! It actually was as if we closed hospitals because they do x-rays or radiotherapy. Thank you, Italy.
It is true that, once hired, it is very hard to fire an employee – it means that companies are not really willing to hire. Unless you are a consultant, with your own VAT number, paying for your own taxes, retirement package, healthcare, etc. For some absurd reason, they give you less money, from which you have to subtract 50% for all the expenses above. Thank you, Italy.
We are the country where the Catholic Church has always had its foothold. Family is one of the most cherished institutions here. Family is important. Families come first but how can you raise a family when the average salary is barely over 1000 euro a month? If you are in a big town and you are lucky, that figure is very close to your apartment rent. Both husband and wife NEED to work, not just because it is their own right. It is for mere survival: if one of the two dies or wants divorce, how can the other one raise their children? Well, if you already own a house you don’t have to pay the rent or loan for…. maybe…
This is the country where, recently, a highly advanced nuclear physics experiment has been blocked by a regional government because the administrators feared the radioactivity involved would have harmed people, polluted water like the nuclear reactor at Fukushima; really, that was the comparison they used! It actually was as if we closed hospitals because they do x-rays or radiotherapy. Thank you, Italy.
We have a joke about the US president declaring: “Americans earn 3000 a month and pay 500 of taxes; what they do with the remaining 2500, I don’t care!
The German chancellor: Germans earn 2000 a month and pay 500 of taxes; what they do with the remaining 1500, I don’t care;
The Italian prime minister: Italians earn 1000 a month; where they find the remaining 500 to survive, I don’t care!
So true….
How can a sovereign state even think that 1200 euros can be enough to live a dignified life in the western world is beyond me. Or that that is the right salary for workers who have a university degree?
I know in the US you do not put your photo and date of birth on the resume. You would be discarded immediately. No potential employer wants trouble for allegations to have discarded applicants for their age or looks. Here in Italy your cv may be discarded if it doesn’t include a picture and your date of birth: who wants an elderly employee that does not even look good? Especially if female?
Yes, at job interviews women are always asked wether they have children or if they are willing to have some in the future. No employer wants the nightmare of having to pay for one employee in maternal leave and another one for substitution. Ok, in the US you don’t have anything like the maternal leave, mothers-to-be need to take a couple of weeks off. You don’t even have new mothers that take advantage of government laws and stay away from work for more than one year, though.
How can a sovereign state even think that 1200 euros can be enough to live a dignified life in the western world is beyond me. Or that that is the right salary for workers who have a university degree?
I know of women in the US that have been capable of having a satisfying career while raising even four children. Impossible here. The good mother is still the one who stays home in the general fantasies of the average Italians. Somehow, mothers in other western countries don’t risk their jobs but are facilitated to go ahead in their careers instead of being obstructed. I always joke about those countries as taking really care of families, they’re not catholic countries!
So maybe that’s why Americans feel like giving thanks at the end of the year. Maybe also because if they lose a job they find another one easily, because if they have to be at work by 9am, a schoolbus has taken the kids to school early enough. Here we must have grandparents in shape so they can bring kids to school while the parents rush to work at the same time. This is how we care about families. This is why we need to stay all close together, brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents: to cover up for the social care we don’t have. Family is important! Thank you, Italy!