Monday, May 13, 2013

Not Letting A Tragedy Go To Waste?

Gotta love this op-ed in the NYT:
EARLY last month, a triple suicide was reported in the seaside town of Civitanova Marche, Italy. A married couple, Anna Maria Sopranzi, 68, and Romeo Dionisi, 62, had been struggling to live on her monthly pension of around 500 euros (about $650), and had fallen behind on rent.

Because the Italian government’s austerity budget had raised the retirement age, Mr. Dionisi, a former construction worker, became one of Italy’s esodati (exiled ones) — older workers plunged into poverty without a safety net. On April 5, he and his wife left a note on a

The correlation between unemployment and suicide has been observed since the 19th century. People looking for work are about twice as likely to end their lives as those who have jobs.
The title of the piece is How Austerity Kills.  Interesting.  You know what kills more?  Socialism, which eventually runs out of other people’s money while preventing job growth in the first place.  Even the author implies that they killed themselves because they didn't have jobs--and it wasn't government cuts that kept them from working.

Governments trying to get solvent don't kill.  Socialism kills.

1 comment:

allen (in Michigan) said...

Well sure. But those who adore socialist solutions won't be deterred and not because they're crazy. At least not crazy by an reasonable definition.

No, they'll continue to espouse socialist solutions because of who they are.

When they change - uncommon but not unheard of - their politics will change. But growing up is tough since it requires putting away the assumption that the world revolves around you.

The irony is that wealth is insulation against life's harsh realities so the wealthier our society becomes the fewer of those bruising realities there are that can reach us and the easier it becomes to avoid adulthood.