Draghi, the land registry and the right and left tax tares
What they say and think left and right about the tax authorities. Gianfranco Polillo's analysis
The electoral defeat of the center-right cannot be dismissed with a self-critical imprint. The issue is not the role of individual leaders, their presumed or real faults, the relative insufficiencies with the outline of the necessary mea-culpa. The deeper question concerns the country: the fate of an Italy caught in a vice from which there seems to be no way out. At the moment, Italian democracy is as if it were suspended. Everything is in the expert hands of Mario Draghi. But the essential condition of its operation is the existence of the largest possible field. If that surface shrinks, taking on a more political nuance, the current semi-presidential form of the command structure only risks collapsing.
At the top of it all is obviously the Italian crisis. The deeper connotations of which should at least be remembered. Since the birth of the euro (2002) the growth rate of the Italian economy has always been the lowest among the countries of the Eurozone and those of the OECD. The only real turnaround took place this year, thanks also to the political formula adopted after the Conte bis. Another sad Italian record is that of a public debt, whose relationship with GDP has grown continuously. Even more so after 2011, following the austerity policies of the Monti government.
On the unemployment front, things are no better. While in the Eurozone countries – data from the European Commission – that rate has gradually decreased, in Italy, in recent times, the decline has been much more marginal. In 2019, the differences, to the benefit of other countries, exceeded 40 percent. Not to mention youth unemployment, which appears to be almost double in Italy. Or the Neet, young people who neither study nor work: a field in which Italy has an absolute sad record. All this while wages, which in the Eurozone have increased on average by a good 12 per cent, in unitary terms, in Italy, for too long, have been crawling to the bottom.
Obviously, if there is no development, there is no welfare either. Seeing this is only a small consolation. The problem is only to understand the deeper reasons and the paradox of a country that does not grow not because it does not have the necessary economic and financial resources. But only because, due to a bad economic policy, it fails to use them in the most socially productive way. Since 2013, according to the calculations of the European Commission (Current plus Capital account), Italy has made a growing part of its national wealth available to foreign countries.
The sharply increasing surplus in the balance of payments has produced an excess of savings which, finding no counterpart in investments, has gone abroad. Something like an annual value equal to 2.5 percent of GDP. After Germany and Holland, Italy has become the third largest net exporter. The overall sums, for the period 2013/2020, amounted to approximately 263 billion euros. Sum obtained by calculating the surpluses recorded each year. In the same period, the Italian public debt increased by 273 billion.
The comparison is embarrassing. It is as if, year after year, we had made debt not to invest it in some productive activity, but only to recover sums to be made available to foreign countries, without any consideration. All this without worrying about the enormous deficits that characterize Italian society. Definitely a Caporetto, for all those forces that have succeeded each other at the helm of the country since that year. Which were, in order, the PD of Letta, Renzi and Zingaretti. So the 5 stars of Conte and Beppe Grillo.
The coincidence between those limits of economic policy and the role played by the left is not accidental. The culture of this formation is all within conventional politics. The growth rate of a country is, so to speak, the "natural" one. It is a postulate, not an unknown factor in the equation to be solved. The task of politics is anything but. Share the (many or few) resources. Be inclusive. Solidarity with the whole world, without thinking about the costs that will have to be faced. Because someone (if anything, future generations) will provide for it. And this then explains the mystery of a country that is enveloped in its contradictions.
If these are the faults of the left, what are the responsibilities of the right? Considering the time frame in which the latter also had government responsibilities. His inability to address the issue of unconventional politics with his feet firmly planted on the ground. Which does not require lifting of the head. Just think of the flat tax at 15 percent, which is impossible to achieve. But a much more structured design, characterized by the clarity of the objectives to be achieved and the time needed to do so.
These limits were once again evident in the discussion on the fiscal delegation which, in fact, follows the summary document of the two parliamentary committees. In that case too, did the position of the center right have its own autonomy? Could there be an alternative to the more immediate needs of the left – the reduction of the tax wedge for employees of certain income brackets? For example, to focus more decisively on the fight against tax evasion, focusing on the American model of contrasting interest? To the point of bringing out, in all its evidence, the diversity of policies. Of course it could be done. It was not done. And here is the posthumous attempt to overturn the table.
In fairness, it must only be added that the left, if nothing else, has shown greater consistency. By accepting the land registry reform, he tries to shift part of the tax levy to the homeowners, to give relief to employees. Again the totem of the simple allocation of resources, albeit on a smaller scale. Of course, among the latter there will also be voters who, perhaps, will not like and will behave accordingly. But these, Mao Tze Tung would have said, are the contradictions among the people.
The same ones that characterize the variegated world of the center right. In fact, there is no doubt that if conflict of interest were used, artisans, traders, professionals and, more generally, the world of VAT numbers could only escape much more difficult. And then in the face of this danger, it is better to postpone. Even if all this leads to impotence and immobility. Which, however, does not pay off in the end. Politics and policy, as is well known, are opposite terms, but also complementary ones. If the proposal, that is the policy, fails the politic, that is the politician, all that remains is to go home.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/draghi-catasto-tare-fiscali/ on Thu, 07 Oct 2021 06:21:58 +0000.