ITALY
By: Jordan Pollard and Brady Lombard
Good Aspects of Italy
Italy is a beautiful peninsula off the coast of the Mediterranean, rich in culture and history. The country is best known for its trade mark Italian food, and captivating tourist destinations, Such as the ruins of the ancient Roman Empire, and museums full of amazing Renaissance artwork. Also, because of the countries extremely diverse regions, when in Italy you can enjoy not only the coastal, warm weather, but great Alpine skiing in the northern areas, provided by the Alps, and Apanines mountain regions.
However.......
- “Political instability has been on ongoing problem in Italy, with more than fifty seven consecutive governments since world war two. Therefore the attempts to stabilize the country's coalition politics have been very unsuccessful. They continue to face problems such as: illegal migrations, organized crime, corruption, and unemployment.”(CultureGrams.com.) Although their economy is considered the 8th largest economy in the world, they are having issues maintaining that status. Their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is now up to 2,066 billion, more than 130% of that is government debt, and recently there has been little to no growth rate. The main thing holding them up is their extremely popular tourist destinations; the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums.
Italy's economic crisis deepens
Due to Italy's few resources, and their amount of government spending the country will go into a downward spiral, and eventually go bankrupt in the next 20 years.
Italy has great potential in becoming as great as they once were if they can find a way to stabilize their economy by increasing their tourism, and boosting their important food industries. Without these changes the future of Italy is uncertain.
- Italy's prime minister, Matteo Renzi,is trying to help with the struggles of unemployment and income. He’s trying a job act reform that would boost the amount of money in the Italians pockets and decrease the amount of money the government receives. The reform would also decrease the income tax from 43% so they can afford food and other items . Due to this new reform “319,000 people have been hired in the first eight months of the reform”(Zampano,Giada) says Giada Zampano researcher for the Wall Street Journal . Also, this new act has made a new spending plan that includes 3.6 billion euro tax cut that will significantly lower the taxes for the people.
Suggestions:
- Re-opening Colosseum
- Increasing Food Industries(Their main crops consisting of wheat, potatoes, corn, rice, fruits, and most importantly wine, cheese, and olive oil.)
- Decrease Income Tax
- Increasing Exports
- Increase Minimum Wage
In Conclusion
To sum up, the Italian peninsula is doing well, however with their lack of resources, GDP growth, and growing public debt and unemployment rate they are slowly on their way downhill. They have a rich history and potential to become great. unless they can find a way to stabilize both their economy and government, they will fall fast.