The indignation of Italians is concentrated in recent days on the salaries and privileges of deputies, senators, regional and provincial councilors, in short on the so-called "caste of politicians" who instead of being at the service of citizens treat Italians as subjects they squeeze them with new taxes and tikets, but they are careful not to give up part of their salary or any of the benefits they enjoy and which often go beyond decency.
Even the President of the Republic intervened on this issue, however, taking it from a broader perspective and that is, urging a reflection on the overall governance of the country, on the fragmentation and confusion of competences, in short, on the too many levels of government we have: municipalities, provinces, regions , national state and the European community, without counting the mountain communities and other autonomous management centers of great importance such as, for example, the Pò water agency. In short, we have built a gigantic political-bureaucratic apparatus which now weighs like a "dead hand" on the activities of citizens, compressing their spirit of initiative and the desire to do things, to compete with the market, to operate with criteria based on merit and not on belonging to political groups and consortia.
Napolitano is right, the indigration towards the caste cannot be limited to the salaries of parliamentarians or their scarce activity, but must look at the problem from the point of view of the institutional architecture if we really want to free Italy from the suffocating weight of all these authorities who claim to govern us in so many fields where there would be no need to be governed.
Certainly the salaries and other benefits of our politicians are high compared to those of other European countries. It is true that deputies and senators work only two days a week, but we have to ask ourselves whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, given that excess legislative production often does more harm than good to the country's economy.
Even if it were possible to cut the salaries of a thousand parliamentarians, we would certainly not have solved the problem of containing public spending given that this is fueled by the legislative activity of all these entities, namely by the eagerness to please customers or pressure groups by granting small or large gifts of public money which therefore leads to an increase in debts and then inevitably to the need to raise taxes. In other words, all this mass of politicians and their staff carry out an incessant intermediation activity which, with the excuse of carrying out a meritorious work of redistribution of wealth, in reality place resources according to criteria of dubious efficiency, which respond more to political logics than to parameters of economy.
Here then is the central point of the costs of the caste: the enormous amount of inefficient spending promoted by politicians at all levels to make contributions to the most varied associations, for public works that are of no use, for subsidies, almost always totally useless, for more different production categories and so on. Over the years and even after the creation of the Regions, we have greatly expanded the perimeter of the public area of our economy, removing it from the competition and therefore in search of maximum efficiency. And this despite the privatizations made in the nineties by Ciampi. Public spending exceeds 50% of GDP, but if we add the turnover of companies that in one way or another are controlled by politicians, we reach at least 70% of GDP that depends on the public sector.
If you really want to cut the nails of the caste you have to cut this bubo. Privatizations and liberalizations would certainly limit the freedom of politics. But that's not enough. It is necessary to reduce the command centers and therefore the number of politicians by merging the smaller municipalities, abolishing the Provinces, better defining the tasks of the Regions and those of the State so as not to waste so much energy in long and pretext "conflicts of competence". And finally, it is necessary to put very solid limits, including constitutional ones, on the deficit spending of all public bodies. In other words, it is not so important to reduce the salary of all current politicians by 20 or 30%, it would be necessary to to that of deputies and senators.
Only in this way could the scandal of the Bisignanis and the Milaneses be limited, who are nothing more than intermediaries (obviously interested) between the political system and the managers of public companies appointed precisely by that political system which should control their work and instead seeks only some personal advantage or for one's political side.
This is the heart of the problem. But it must also be said that thousands of Italians are currently beneficiaries of this system of giving public tips or hope sooner or later to have something as a gift. And it is those same Italians who are ranting against the privileges of caste. So the question is: are Italians willing to give up ephemeral and deceptive gifts given by politicians? Have they understood that they are illusory benefits because they are inevitably unloaded on taxation, and that they cost a lot because the politicians who act as intermediaries charge a high price for their useless intermediation activity?
Looking at the level of the debate, mostly oriented towards gossip, rather than the systematic search for the causes of the excessive power of caste, some doubts are legitimate. But, who knows, the crisis could lead to a different awareness on the part of citizens who must convince themselves that it is the abnormal weight of the sector that is blocking the country's growth.
