Posted on 05/30/2010 4:55:13 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Advance guard of angry women lead Italians into European protests over austerity cuts
Italy is the latest eurozone nation to be threatened by finacial woe - after Silvio Berlusconi assured his compatriots for months that they had weathered the crisis
By Nick Squires in Rome
Published: 7:49PM BST 29 May 2010
Advance guard of angry women lead Italians into European protests over austerity cuts Proposed measures aim to shave 24 billion euros off government spending in the next two years Photo: NICK CORNISH
They were the advance guard of an army of Italians whose anger is rising as their country joins the rest of the continent struggling with the worst economic crisis of recent times.
Waving banners, blowing whistles and chanting "Shame!", hundreds of public service workers rallied outside Italy's parliament in Rome to protest against the austerity package announced by the centre-Right government of Silvio Berlusconi.
The measures aim to shave 24 billion euros off government spending in the next two years.
They include a crackdown on tax evasion and welfare fraud, a three year salary freeze for Italy's 3.4 million civil servants and substantial cuts to regional government which will almost certainly result in less money for hospitals and schools.
In pushing through the package with an emergency parliamentary decree, Italy joined Portugal and Spain in trying to fend off contagion from the crisis which has brought deadly riots to Greece and shaken confidence in the euro. The cuts are greater in scale than the £6 billion of immediate savings recently announced by Britain's new coalition government, but are comparable with what the UK may face over the next 12 months.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
P!
Gee, liberals are angry. Not really news, and certainly not bad news.
Lol!
Angry Italian babes!
Been there! Barely made it out alive!
“They include a crackdown on tax evasion and welfare fraud”
Yep—that would have the masses demonstrating in the streets of the US, too.
The article is deceitful. The angry women are actually angry government workers. These are the equivalent to Acorn and SEIU heavies in say Baltimore or maybe Philadelphia.
italy has roughly 60 million people and about 5% are government employees. Anybody know what the percentage is here in the US?
So austerity means not spending more than you make? Who knew
WE WANT OUR CAKE AND WE WANT TO EAT IT TOO.
but we don't want to own it or pay for it.
How DARE they....!!!
Euroweenie brings groceries to check out, it is rung up and the clerk says, "That will be 110 Euros please". The customer says, "I have no money to pay". "No money", says the clerk, "well then, I'm afraid you cannot have the groceries if you cannot pay for them". Shocked, the customer says, "What do you mean I can't have them? I WANT them!!". But you haven't any money with which to pay or these groceries". says the clerk.
"What does THAT have to do with anything", cries the customer, "I said I WANTED them, didn't I"?
And so it goes in the lands of perpetual rainbows, candy and the "right" to all things for free.
The current world financial situation is like an out of control forest fire. One way to control a fire is to use a control burn or to cut a large fire break.
Cuts in spending would be like a fire break. It would not “put out the fire” but it could help keep it from spreading.
Those that are protesting these cuts do not seem to realize that without them, the “fire” will eventually destroy everything.
Their protest may very well keep their government from doing anything, but it will not stop the fire. It would be better to sacrifice a little now then to lose everything later.
I just read an article about Pompeii, and the site is falling to pieces, irreparable damage, because the place is run by unionized government workers who simply won’twork. And they won’t let anybody else do anything either.
It’s a kind of Mafia.
This is why I have no faith at all that the Euro crisis will end successfully. The bread and circuses must continue or the rulers will be replaced with those who will continue the bread and circuses....
The end result is to clamor for a savior who can make trains run on time.
That is the best chuckle I’ve had in weeks and so early in the a.m.
So you created an “austerity” title? I protest.
Maybe if those women could have been bothered to have some kids, they might have seen a brighter future. Instead they’re finding that when you spend EVERYONE’s retirement savings, even before most of the people actually retire - there’s not much left to go back for.
“italy has roughly 60 million people and about 5% are government employees. Anybody know what the percentage is here in the US?”
Probably about the same. The problem is the number of government employees, it’s what percent of the economy is run by the government. In Europe it’s on the order of 40 to 50%, over here a bit less, but closing quick.
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