Italy

A simple (and real) example on how the italian economic laws work.

• A company spend 12€ to get an hour of work from an indipendent worker. 10€ go to the worker, 2€ go in taxes (20%, levy on services). But also the worker has to pay 6€ for taxes (60%, levy on income), and he remains with 4€, for an hour of work (from the 12€ initially spent by the company!).
• Now the worker would buy some fuel for his car, and he spends all his 4€.
• 1.4€ goes to the fuel company, while 2.6€ (65%)goes for the levy on combustible (and even the levy is taxed!).
• As you can see 82% of the money produced by one hour of work go away only with taxes. The problem is that all these taxes are bad spended by politics because they use them to get re-elected, not for the sake of the people.

Moreover think that who don’t work get a little pay. But if you work you are taxed as previously seen. Easy that people are not encouraged to work with that system, or to do it illegally.

• Parliamentarys take 15.000€ (almost 20.000 US $) a month, have most goods paid by the country, can be absent 100% of worktime, and can retire with less than 3 years of work. They can be put on trial and  judged only by their colleagues, and even if condamned they can continue to “work”. They have many bodyguards and armoured cars (paid by the government)
• Workers instead usually take about 1.000€ a month (40 hours of work per week), and cannot get public works if they are condemned by standard trials. They can retire after more-or-less 45 years of work. They are exposed to criminals.

Police has serious problems even to buy fuel to control the streets. If they catch someone, the trial begin. 95% of trials end for time limitation, and the charged is considered innocent.

• If for some strange reason the trial go on, in about 10 years the charged can obtain a verdict. If he is found guilty he should go to prison. But if they have less than 4 years they have “alternative punishment”, as stay at home. For every 9 months in prison, they discount 1 year of punishment.
• But even with that, if there are too many criminals in the prisons, sometimes other years of  detention are disconted and many get free (in July 2006 about 30.000 criminals exited from prison with a law that discount 3 years and 10.000€ of punishment).

Tag: economy, italy, politics, taxes, trial