The document summarizes the deteriorating economic situation in Italy, with rising unemployment, falling incomes, and the emergence of a "new poor" social class. Unemployment reached a record high of 11.2% in December 2012, with 4 in 10 Italians giving up on looking for work. Inflation is outpacing salary growth, reducing family purchasing power by an estimated €540 on average. A growing number of people are turning to charities due to financial hardship, including formerly middle-class professions like craftspeople and small business owners. The gap between Italy's wealthy and poor is widening, with little being done politically to address the crisis.

1. The new social-economic situation
That 2012 was a difficult year is a matter of fact but that 2013 is even
harder, this is becoming obviously certain. An increasing unemployment
and a decreasing spending power of families are only some of the
alarming parameters used to point to the Italian economic situation, in
which we can note the formation of a new social-economic class: “The
new poor people”.
It was the National Statistics Institute (Istat) which
alarmed with unemployment since, according to the
information released in February but referring to last
December, the economic social phenomenon reached a
new record. The number of unemployment has so far
reached to 2,875,000 people (11.2%). These data must be put together with the
youth unemployment that has decreased to 36.6% and the idle people, pointing
out that 4 Italians of 10 have given up with looking for a job. But Italian problems
are not only those related with (un)employment. Another important issue is the
collapse of the spending power due to a very small salary increase, just 1.5%
facing an inflation rate of 3%. The Consumers’ Federation (Federconsumatori)
calculates the relapse on family spending power, according to which a simple
income family of 4 people, will waste € 540, that means less expenditure, less
consumer goods. The crisis is deepen also by new increasing taxes, so that
Italians can only hope and pray they will be able to get to the end of the month.
But that’s not all, since another alarming economic phenomenon is the formation
of a new strange social class: “The new poor people” made up of people who
previously belonged to the middle class, including craftsmen, traders, employees
and others. The falling down of the middle class began in 2007 and it continues
up till today. Up to 2011, the percentage of population that turns to the Caritas to
face the current expenses has grown of 14%, but among them there are not only
indebted former workers or professionals, many of them are divorced, separated
men who, exhausted by legal expenses, assist to their own financial crash
without being able to do anything, and that only, because they want to practice
the right to see their own children for few times a week.
“Are we rich or poor people?”, this is the question that many people ask. Italy, as
the rest of the world, is by now a Country with two sides: the rich people, who
think of having fun and how spending the money earned, and the poor people,
who manage to survive. Today we live in this world, a dirty and corrupt world,

2. strange to our eyes, but for which we do nothing to improve it. The gap among
social classes has always existed, but lately it has been getting worse and
worse. If we think about it we could say advertising is one of the most common
cause that makes us waste money, but reflecting, more we can say that the fault
is only ours, since Italians spend more and more on cameras, motorcycles,
computers, mobile phones and etc. Anyway, for Italy and for us Italians, these
are very difficult times, and a Country as ours can’t and mustn’t allow the
impoverishment of its inhabitants, our silent institutions should give some
serious answers to the economic crisis and our ruling class should talk less and
pass from words to deeds.