Korrupsjon, vanstyre og byråkrati preger både Hellas og Italia. Det hullet landene har gravd seg ned i er så dypt at landene må lære om igjen hvis de skal ha noe håp om å komme opp igjen.
Det snakkes om sjansene for at araberlandene skal klare å bygge et fungerende demokrati, men man kan sannelig begynne med landene som nå synker sør for Alpene. Problemstillingen er noe av den samme: borgerne vil ikke betale skatt, lojaliteten til staten er minimal, men det gjelder også de som representerer staten! Deres privilegier og sinekyrer er så store og mange at det gjør selv ærlige borgere kyniske.
Dagens Næringsliv hadde 7 november artikkelen: Et hav av tapt skatt, av Stig Arild Pettersen.
Ifølge en mye omtalt bloggpost av en gransk bankansatt gjengitt i Financial Times ifjor, var det kun seks grekere som oppga en inntekt året før på mer enn én million euro, eller nærmere åtte millioner kroner. Bare 85 grekere tjener mer enn en halv million euro. Den bankansatte stusset over at det dermed tilssynelatende var flere med millioninntekt på bankens eget meglergulv enn i hele Hellas tilsammen.
Med andre ord har begge land en stor svart økonomi.
Myndighetene er klar over at store beløp unndras skatt. De forsøkte tidligere i år å kartlegge svømmebasseng i Athen. Det er luksesskatt på svømmebasseng. I et av byens rikeste områder var det offisielt 324 basseng. Flyfoto avslørte at det var 10.000.
Skattesystemet er håpløst gammeldags. Hvis det ilegges tilleggsskatt kan sanken ankes, og den tar ti år å behandle. For tiden skal det være en backlog på 300.000 slike saker.
Italia har noe av de samme problemene. Ett stort problem er at jobbmarkedet er lukket: det avhenger av forbindelser å komme seg inn. Akkurat som med skattesvindel avføder dette kyniske, og for ungdommens del - hjerneflukt. Alle landene sør for Alpene opplever nå en braindrain som kan få alvorlige følger på lang sikt.
Kaka er større i Italia, og dermed også for politikerne som bestyrer den. Italia har 30.000 tjenstebiler til en kostad av 16 milliarder kroner i året.
Systemet vil måtte legges helt om. Men hvem skal gjøre det? og hvor dyp må krisen bli før fundamentale endringer tvinger seg frem?
Det fundamentale problemet er mangel på tillit, mellom de som styrer og de som blir styrt.
The country’s dismally low growth is a consequence of corruption, a bloated bureaucracy, an overpaid and cosseted political class, stifling bureaucracy, low productivity and a third-rate educational system.
On almost all those indices, the problems in the “Mezzogiorno”, the sun-baked, Mafia-plagued south of Italy, are much more acute than in the wealthy north, highlighting a regional divide that has existed since unification in 1861, threatening to split the nation.
Of the world’s top 200 universities, only one is Italian – Bologna University in the north, one of the oldest in Europe.
Italy also performs poorly in global rankings of transparency and competitiveness.Italy’s National Statistics Agency has estimated that the “black” economy makes up at least 16 per cent of GDP.
Tax evasion is almost a national sport. Italians resent paying high taxes when they feel they get little in return – streets are potholed, hospitals are overcrowded, playgrounds for children are often smashed up and covered in graffiti and public transport is frequently shabby and outdated.
And they have been set a terrible example – among the plethora of accusations that Mr Berlusconi has faced in his many trials are those of tax fraud and false accounting.
“How do you expect Italians to respect the rules when the law is ignored by our politicians?” said Alessio, 42, who sells T-shirts and souvenirs to tourists from a shop overlooking the Trevi Fountain, one of Rome’s most popular tourist spots. “But the problem is not just Berlusconi. We’ve had these issues for 30 or 40 years and no one has done anything about them. Now the hole is too deep. I see very little hope.”
Getting a well-paid job in Italy often depends not on merit but “raccomandazioni” or connections – in other words, it’s not what, but who you know. While millions of older Italians have jobs for life, their children scramble from one short-term contract to another and often work for nothing.
The unemployment rate for young people between the ages of 15 and 24 is close to 30 per cent.
The youth are locked out of work by a closed-shop system that affects dozens of trades and professions, from pharmacists and notaries to taxi drivers and licensed tourist guides.
Seeing no prospects at home, young Italians are leaving in droves to seek better opportunities in Britain, the US, Australia and the Gulf, in an accelerating brain drain that will deprive the country of much-needed entrepreneurial talent.“Many of my friends have left the country in search of a better life,” said Antonio Lardo, 28, a graduate who had dreams of becoming a teacher but instead sells sketches in a cobbled lane. “There’s no decent work here.”
Italy’s fat cat politicians are also a drain on the public purse. The 945 members of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies earn an average annual salary of €140,000 – almost twice as much as British MPs and more even than MEPs.
They are chauffeured around in expensive Alfa Romeos, Maseratis and Audis with tinted windows.
There are a staggering 30,000 of these executive cars and they cost the Italian taxpayer an estimated €2 billion a year.
“Their salaries need to be cut immediately,” said Luisa Calvanese, 40, who runs a photographic shop a few streets away from parliament.
“Both sides of politics, the Left and the Right, make cuts which affect ordinary people, but never themselves.”
Italy’s debt crisis: doomed by corruption, bloated bureaucracy and poor productivity
Decades of turning a blind eye to endemic tax evasion, corruption, and dismal economic growth has sent Italy careering into its present crisis.
