Tuesday, April 10, 2012

What's Wrong With Italy

This Blogger is signing on this week from Italy, one of the most beautiful countries in the world.   Italy has it all, history, mountains, lakes, the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas, wonderful food and people.   The Italian economy is one of the largest in the world; bigger than Great Britain's.   Yet, Italy is in trouble.

The Italians got rid of their Fascist Dictator Benito Mussolini, Il Duce, at the end of World War II.  Mussolini was actually captured by the Italians, executed and then hung upside down, with slit wrists so he could bleed to death to make sure he was dead.   The Italians even poured salt in his wounds as an insult to make certain he suffered a painful death for all the pain he caused the Italian people.   Just proves, it is not a good idea to make an Italian mad. 

But, what came next was not so good either.   Since World War II, Italy has had a series of dysfunctional governments, one after another.   The multiparty parliamentary system in Italy has failed the Italian people.   While Italy has progressed since World War II, from a poor country to a modern industrial state, along with it has come corruption, high taxes and stifling regulations.   The Italians got rid of a Fascist dictator only to be plagued by Socialists and Communists that have demanded La Dolce Vita, the sweet life for the Italian people. 

The end result are work rules that make it difficult to fire an employee, like in most parts of Europe and low productivity.   But most important, like other Western Democracies, Italian politicians figured out that providing La Dolce Vita required borrowing Billions of Euros each year because a slow growth economy does not produce the tax revenues needed (even with high taxes) to pay for the Welfare State and all the "free" benefits provided the Italian people.   Surprise, Surprise.

So today, the Italian National Debt is fast approaching 150% of their Gross Domestic Product.   Putting the brakes on to spending causes riots in Italy's streets because the Italian people do not want to give up La Dolce Vita.   Things are not yet as bad as in Greece, but Italy is not far behind the same day of reckoning.   While Greece's financial collapse can be contained to some degree, Italy is a much bigger economy.  If Italy defaults on its National Debt, which could happen, it will be impossible to contain the impact.   Banks all over the world will face huge losses and they will come knocking on their government's doors, one way or another, for a bail out.  That means American taxpayers will be on the hook. 

Italy is another prime example of Socialist and Communist handiwork.   We see it in all Western Democracies.   The Welfare state promised by these characters is unsustainable.  They promise more and more to stay in office and always assume that just one more tax will do the trick.   The problem is that higher taxes retard economic growth generating even less revenues.   So then Socialists blame the "rich" for all the nation's problems and impose more regulations that are job killers to solve the problem.   It is a vicious circle. 

Sound familiar.   Socialist President Obama is playing this dangerous game as he sings his Class Warfare song.   Republicans in Congress are attempting to prevent the bankruptcy of the United States.  The Ryan Budget, enacted by the House of Representatives, is a reasonable approach designed to put the brakes on deficit spending slowly over the next ten to twenty years.  Instead of acting responsibly, Obama and his Socialists pals in Congress demagogue the issues, telling the American people that the Republican Plan will end life as we know it.  

Since Socialists will lie, cheat or steal to stay in office, once more they are attempting to scare their PEEP's; those on the dole, those that pay no income taxes at all, union workers, radical environmentalists, trial lawyers and crony capitalists to get them to the polls.   Hopefully, the American people are smarter and can see through all the lies and propaganda; but we can't count on it. 

What is happening in Italy is another reason we must take back our country in the United States.   We must make Obama a one term President and sweep these reckless Socialists, at all levels of government out of office in 2012 and 2014 to prevent the bankrupcty of our nation.   We can do it.  We must do it to preserve our freedom, our nation and way of life for the sake of our children and grandchildren.  Italy will soon lose its national sovereignty as a result of its Debt Crisis.   We can't let that happen to the United States.

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