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Monster Media 1996 #14
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Monster Media No. 14 (April 1996) (Monster Media, Inc.).ISO
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1996-02-05
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Foreign Correspondent
Inside Track On World News
By International Syndicated Columnist & Broadcaster
Eric Margolis <emargolis@lglobal.com>
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Italy Suffers under Plague of Politicans
by Eric Margolis
MILAN, ITALY - A grim, grey winter sky hangs over this
great industrial and commercial powerhouse of Italy. The ,
chilly dampness, patches of snow, and Milan's bustling
citizens, make the city and surrounding Lombardy look more
like Germany than the usual image of sunny, easy-going
Italy.
In fact, southern Italians call the Milanese and other
northerners, `Tedesci' - Germans. The snobbish northerners
dismiss their southern compatriots as `Africani.' Thanks to
the hard-driving `Tedesci,' Italy now enjoys the fastest
growing economy among leading industrial nations.
Some years ago, Italy overtook England to become Europe's
third ranking economy after Germany and France. By now, its
economy may well have surpassed France's. No one is
certain: Italians are grand masters at evading taxes,
under-reporting profits, and hiding wealth. Some estimates
put Italy's real GDP at 40% higher than official figures.
This is a remarkable achievement considering that Italy t
has been in a state of political chaos for the past four
years. The old, rotten political order, an unholy alliance
of corrupt politicians, extorting civil servants, venal
churchmen, and gangsters, collapsed. Nothing has yet taken
its place. Italy's political system lies in ruins.
Back in 1994, I was in Rome, covering the newly named prime
minister, media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi. At the time, I
shared the hopes of most Italians that Berlusconi would drag
Italy out of its evil, Cesare Borgia politics, and somehow
produce clean, efficient government. Alas, Berlusconi
proved a major disappointment: a would-be Dusesconi,
intolerably arrogant, and politically inept. He refused to
address the outrageous conflicts of interest
over his media empire. Berlusconi's shaky coalition
collapsed. He is now on trial for bribery. Berlusconi was
replaced by a technocrat, Lamberto Dini, whose caretaker
government fell last month.
This week, after the umpteenth crisis, another technocrat,
the aptly named, Antonio Meccanico, was designated to try to
form a government. None of the politicians want elections.
That might cost them their seats and perks.
The squabbling politicians and their fragmenting political
parties in Rome have lost all contact with the real Italy.
They might as well be on the moon. Italians shrug, ignore
them, evade their taxes, and go on making money.
This would be fine, except that to win votes, politicians
ran up gargantuan deficits that are undermining the economy.
Italy's debt is now 124% of GDP, exceeding that of even
bankrupt Canada, and almost as bad as broke Belgium. The
cost of supporting a huge bureaucracy and featherbedding
state industries is crushing, but the politicians don't dare
cut spending. As a result of voracious government gobbling
up national resources, Italy's unemployment has reached 12%.
Politicians are clearly the enemy of Italy's prosperity.
Not only do they suck up the national wealth, politicians
seriously dislocate the economy by granting special deals to
their supporters. As a result, Italian business spends vast
amounts of energy and money dodging politicians and bribe-
seeking civil servants, money that should go into productive
investment. In effect, politics in Italy - but not just
Italy - is little more than a gigantic protection racket
that feeds on business. Nor is this anything new. Back in
1831, the great British historian Macaulay described
Italians as, `a race corrupted by bad government.'
Yet what's really noteworthy about Italy is not its endemic
corruption, political chaos, nor the chicanery at every
level of society. It's that Italians manages to prosper
mightily in spite of rotten government.
This, in turn, raises the question: what might Italy do if
it had decent government? One that balanced budgets, rooted
out corruption, collected taxes fairly, slashed the
bureaucracy, and ended the maze of strangling regulations
and nourishes corruption?
In other words, if the enormous entrepreneurial power of the
Italians, propelled by their superb style and grace, were
unleashed. Why does this brilliant people keep poisoning
themselves on the toxin of putrid politics? The revolution
Italians staged four years ago swept away much of the old
order - and yet the old order still has its tentacles on the
levers of power. Clearly, Italy needs another great leap
forward, or, to chose a more felicitous image, another
Garibaldi, to cleanse Rome of political infestation.
Italy's case is extreme, yet its affliction is shared by
many democracies. The entrenched political class, backed by
armies of bureaucrats, workers of state-owned firms, and
teachers, has become the main impediment to economic growth
and increased employment. So far, no western nation has
found a way of breaking this stranglehold - witness the
failure of the Republican 'revolution' so far to change
politics- as- usual in Washington. This is, of course,
because the same politicians who feed off the system are
being asked to reform it.
The acidly cynical Italians call politicians `ladroni' -
bandits, an unavoidable scourge that must be endured. But
just over the Alps from here, rich Switzerland runs like a
Swiss watch with hardly any government,and is free of
political plague. Germany and Austria have competent,
honest governments. Why must Italy - or at least the
Lombard north - continue to suffer?
Rome will always be corrupt - it's the heat, and history.
But chilly Milan should be different. Maybe Italians should
not be allowed into politics. Imagine Italy, run by the
Swiss. ...........
copyright E. Margolis February 1996
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