"It's time to take care of the future of Italy, today held hostage by generational selfishness and a pervasive gerontocracy, the antithesis of meritocracy and a dangerous block to growth". A weighty stance, almost as a veteran, that of the new president of the Young Entrepreneurs of Confindustria, Jacopo Morelli, who with these words opened the traditional two-day event organized by the association in Santa Margherita Ligure.
In short, Italy “is not a country for young people – continues Morelli -. We are sacrificing those of the new generations on the altar of acquired rights”. For these reasons, the budding entrepreneurs of Confindustria have put four proposals on paper that the Government will have to take into account in view of the tax reform.
First of all, it would be necessary to "lower taxes on young people", because "in recent years the real salary for entry has fallen dramatically and lower salaries have not corresponded to faster careers. The loss of income is permanent and youth unemployment is growing”.
Second point: reduce the contribution wedge for those entering the labor market. “Raising the retirement age rapidly towards 70 – explains Morelli – would reduce the burdens on new entrants”. The system today "balances itself at the cost of too high social security contributions".
We come to businesses. For Morelli it is necessary to reduce the IRAP on start-ups. A fundamental measure “to stimulate young entrepreneurship as a lifestyle choice. We have to do it immediately, without waiting for fiscal federalism to come into effect”.
The latest proposal from the young people of Viale dell'Astronomia has to do with education: they want the legal value of educational qualifications to be abolished. A provision “necessary to have universities competing with each other and competitive in the world. Luigi Einaudi had already explained that the effect of legal value is to mislead the graduates themselves”. Morelli concluded by recalling that of the three million European students who complete a year of training abroad "only 1,7% come to Italy: our brains will stop fleeing only when we manage to attract other brains".
The general manager of the Bank of Italy, Fabrizio Saccomanni, also spoke at the conference in Santa Margherita Ligure. Read the speech "The Lost Generation: Youth's Contribution to Economic Growth."
