Italy pays its people to go on vacation
The following article by Silvia Marchetti first appeared in GlobalPost.
ROME, Italy — “Exploit your holidays to discover your unique, magical Italy,” intones Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in a new TV ad encouraging Italians to vacation at home this year.
For those Italians still unsure of exactly why they should “discover” Italy — according to Berlusconi, a land not just of “sky, sun and sea but also of history, culture and art — the state has thrown in a sweetener: it will help pay for citizens’ summer or winter breaks by granting “holiday vouchers.”
Berlusconi’s government believes that tourism can be a strategic tool in Italy’s economic recovery, but only if Italians spend money for vacations at home instead of abroad.
The coupons are available to all low-income families, especially those with many children, who wish to go to the seaside or mountains but can’t normally afford it. If the state has its way, visits to sunny beaches or historical cities will no longer be a privilege for the few, but a right of the many.
How the bailout feeds bloated banker pay
– James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own –
Rising pay in the finance sector in the wake of the global financial crisis is no surprise and is driven partly by the government’s bailout itself and the underwriting of banks that are too big to fail.
News that some financial firms benefitting from government largesse actually increased the share of revenue they pay their employees sparked a lot of outrage but more heat than light.
The good news is this new bulge in pay may not be sustainable.
The bad news is it will probably only be stopped by further regulation, regulation which may never come.
To understand what is going on you need to understand the economic concept of “rents”, essentially the extra money a given individual or industry is able to extract from its clients above what it would be able to if there was perfect competition.
A monopoly will charge a very high price for goods or services because, well, they can. Needless to say economic rents are not a good thing, unless of course you are in receipt of them.
Well, if you think about it – maybe they do deserve more money than before. After all, the bankers and the media had a stellar performance hyping up the “meltdown”, and subsequently were rewarded with fantastic bailout programs (the exact details of which is a subject for a whole other discussion). Thus, not only did the bankers avoid the “noose”, they did so *without spending a dime of their own money*. With a great success like that can you really blame them for paying themselves more?
This sounds like socialism! How many ways will we find to reward failure? Greg Urroz, CRS Phoenix, AZ Realtor