Arrivederci Roma

Sclerotic economics and politics are driving young college grads away from Italy, although the article in Time doesn't make the numbers entirely clear. Most of the other Italian problems described in the piece do seem accurate.

One positive thing about the European Union is how easy it makes moving to another E.U. country to work; it's much like moving to another state in the U.S. The examples Time gives, however, find young Italians moving to the Middle East, or the U.S.

When the young have to go abroad to find opportunity, a country has a problem. I found particularly troubling the following:

According to figures published in May by the National Institute of Statistics, 30% of Italians ages 30 to 34 still live with their parents, three times as many as in 1983.