Italian society is "silly and unhappy": "there hasn't been a real collapse", but "too many people go down the social ladder". This is what the president of Censis, Giuseppe De Rita underlines, in the general considerations of the 47th report on the social situation of the country.
In its study, the Social Investment Study Center points the finger at the "Italian ruling class", which "tends to seek its legitimacy in the commitment to give stability to the system, perhaps starting from dramatic announcements, saving decrees and complicated maneuvers that have the only motivation and the only effect of keeping itself the sole owner of the crisis management. The ruling class cannot and does not want to abandon the implicit but ambiguous choice of dramatizing the crisis in order to manage it. A temptation that also applies to everyone: politicians as public administrators, bankers as opinion makers”. In general, according to Censis, "three themes that seem omnipotent in explaining the country's situation have imposed themselves on the social and political debate: the first is that Italy is on the edge of the abyss, the second is that the greatest dangers derive from the serious state of instability and the third is that we do not have a ruling class adequate to avoid the danger of the abyss".
A crisis situation that is reflected in the data contained in the report.
CONSUMPTION BACK 10 YEARS
According to the report, in 2013 household expenditure went back more than ten years: from the early 2000s to today, expenditure on food products decreased by 6,7%, clothing and footwear by 15%, and by 8% those for furnishing and home maintenance, by 19% those for transport. "Less waste, but also less ability to save, define a worrying picture in which it is now essential to act quickly in terms of radically lowering the tax burden - writes Censis -, of readily usable consumer incentives, of employment policies" . Among households, 76% hunt for promotions, 63% choose food based on the cheapest price, 62% have increased purchases of private label products, 68% have decreased spending on cinema and entertainment , 53% have reduced journeys by car and scooter to save petrol, 45% have given up going to a restaurant.
UNCERTAINTY ABOUT THE FUTURE AND WORK, NOT JUST FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
According to a survey by the institute conducted in September, a quarter of employed people are convinced that in the first months of 2014 their working conditions will worsen; 14,3% think they will soon have a reduction in their income from work and 14% think they could lose their job. “These are fears that transversally affect the Italian population – explains Censis – not only the very young, who rather than fear a reduction in wages are afraid of finding themselves out of work, but also the central age groups, including the need to providing with one's income for the well-being of the family amplifies anxieties about the future”. Between 35-44 years old. 13,7% are convinced that their job position is at risk and 17,3% expect a reduction in income; among the 45-54 year olds, the fear of losing their job is shared by 17,1% of the employed. "The sentiment of no confidence is fueled by the deterioration of a context - continues the report - which has seen, especially in the last year, the perimeter of the crisis widen from the younger generational bands to the more adult ones".
ENTERPRISES: THE WEIGHT OF WOMEN AND IMMIGRANTS IS GROWING
Censis invites us to reconsider the role of immigrants, defined as "a driving force: faced with the difficulties of finding an employee job, forced to work to stay in Italy, foreigners take the risk of opening new businesses". Between 2009 and 2012, Italian entrepreneurs decreased by 4,4%, while foreigners increased by 16,5%. Foreign businesses represent 11,7% of the total. It is concentrated in construction (21,2% of the total) and in the retail trade (20%). Faced with the crisis affecting Italian shops, which have decreased by 2009% since 3,3, foreigners have instead grown by 21,3% in the retail sector (where there are 120.626 foreign-owned businesses) and by 9,1 .21.440% in the wholesale sector (XNUMX).
On the female side, at the end of the second quarter of 2013, there were 1.429.880 businesses with a female owner, equal to 23,6% of the total. In the last year the balance is positive (almost 5 thousand units more). Pink companies are concentrated in commerce (28,7%), agriculture (16,2%), accommodation and catering services (9,2%). They are mainly small (almost 69% have fewer than one employee) and individual (60% of the total). However, the most significant increase in the last year was recorded for joint-stock companies: 9.027 more units (+4,2%). Furthermore, the participation of women as freelancers in the labor market increased by 3,7% between 2007 and 2012.
RACISM ALERT
According to Censis, only 17,2% of Italians feel understanding and have a friendly approach towards immigrants: 4 out of five are divided between distrust (60,1%), indifference (15,8%) and open hostility (6,9 .65,2%) while two out of three Italians (2013%) think that there are too many immigrants in Italy. In XNUMX, the appointment of the black prime minister of the Republic represented a positive element "but the most attentive observers will not have missed some signs of tension skillfully fueled by a part of our political representatives in a racism that rises from above and which finds a dangerous breeding ground in concerns related to the crisis”.
FORGOTTEN NOON
According to the institute's calculations, per capita GDP in the South is 17.957 euros, 57% of that of the Centre-North, also lower than the average levels of Greece and Spain. Censis speaks of the South as "an unsolved problem", the data for which show a serious worsening: "The incidence of the South's GDP on the national one went from 24,3% to 23,4% in the period 2007-2012, the result of a contraction of 41 billion, 36% of the 113 lost by Italy due to the crisis. The impression is strong that the southern question has in fact been declassified from every political programme”.
EDUCATION STILL AT LOW LEVELS
Even today, 21,7% of the Italian population over the age of 15 has at most a primary school certificate. Most of these are elderly people, but this percentage includes 2% of 15-19 year olds, 1,5% of 20-24 year olds, 2,4% of 25-29 year olds and 7,7% of 30-59 year olds who have never obtained a lower secondary school qualification. As for universities, “the anxiety that universities show towards international comparisons is the consequence of a university system that is in some ways too provincial – continues the dossier -. Italian universities therefore find it difficult to position themselves within international research networks”, since the “prevailing local connotation” weighs on the “international reputation”.
