In the last 30 years wages have increased all over Europe. Except in Italy

Wages reduced to the minimum are the real alarm bell of the deepest crisis afflicting our country: those wages that remain level, without ever increasing, are proof of an exclusively Italian anomaly, generated by the inability to build the future. The comparison with the rest of Europe is clear: the data shows how between 1991 and 2022, at equal purchasing power, the average annual salary in Germany and France increased by over 13 thousand euros; in Spain the increase was around 1,500 euros, while in Italy there was a decrease of 488 euros. The analyses of WOSM© – the system developed by Vidierre that allows you to identify behaviors and trends starting from a monitoring of 25 million national and international sources such as the Web, social media and media – help to understand what is behind those downward paychecks.

First of all, I am the mirror of a country that is unable to address inequalities: wages are crushed by the inability to invest in young people, women, and the southern regions. Let’s start with the southern question: other nations have addressed territorial inhomogeneity in development, avoiding that there were territories somehow left behind. Just think of what was done in the former GDR after German unification or what happened in various areas of Poland and Romania, which are now seeing the return of people who left for Western Europe at the beginning of the Millennium. Since 1861, Italy has been at two speeds and for a quarter of a century the gap has widened: there are no prospects especially for young people, who move towards the North or abroad. The damage is double because those who leave are often the most prepared or the most determined, who prefer to get involved rather than scrape by in the family dimension or, even worse, in the welfare dimension: it is as if by letting the most motivated young people emigrate, one were giving up on the future. A colossal euthanasia, social, but also economic. The potential of our South is gigantic and not only in tourism, held back by the lack of infrastructure and services: there are technological research centers in Puglia as in Campania that indicate a bright path to enhance the wealth of ideas, creativity and professionalism. However, they continue to be suffocated by political, entrepreneurial and administrative short-sightedness: everything must deal with an oppressive, slow, self-referential bureaucracy, which represents a dead weight for every attempt to transform.

Unfortunately, it is bitter to note that not even the North is able to focus on the new generations, increasingly attracted by the opportunities offered by the rest of Europe: a collective appeal, because everyone is aware of obtaining better economic treatments. We are faced with a real generational issue, characterized by a generalized distrust towards young people.

Furthermore, the entire Peninsula is aligned in not recognizing a concrete gender equality, which materializes precisely in the differences in pay and in the lack of valorization of women: there are not the same career opportunities, as if one consciously accepted to halve human resources.

When it comes to planning development, a basic rule is followed: maximize what is positive and minimize what is negative. There is no time to waste: there is a need for a radical change in mentality that looks at innovation as the only winning model. We need to push ourselves to dare, even at the cost of failure: start thinking big again and invest in those seeds that can germinate with more vigor.