Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "Why Italy’s Economy is Doing Surprisingly Well" video.

  1. We'll have to see if it's got momentum and if the people actually feel the improvements. But it does look quite promising on the surface, debt is going down, inflation is low, growth is picking up, there's also those billions from the EU which I don't think Italy has used yet, so that could help growth. In any case, what I find with modern, open democracies, they don't usually fall behind too much to other modern countries, and if they do slip behind for some time like Italy and Japan have done, they are likely going to have a small period of economic boom to catch up, as long as the fundamentals are there, which they are usually with open democracies, they don't really fall too far out of line with each other, but in the case of Italy and Japan, the situation hasn't been good for decades now, but as they fall behind, more pressure from the public on governments kick in to do more radical changes to kick-start the economy, it's one of the major advantages a democracy has, it eventually corrects its self, some take longer then others like Italy and Japan, but it happens in time. Also, Italy does have the advantage of being in the EU, which in time will pull them back, even if it means kicking and screaming, but it would help to have a more stable political environment, reduce corruption and far less red tape to encourage more investment.
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  2. Yep, if there's one thing I've learned is to ignore GDP numbers and unemployment numbers. You get many countries that like to brag about how well the economy is doing it, but if you listen carefully, the people in those countries are saying a very different thing, we see this a lot in the UK and US where, we hear it a lot how well the economy is doing and how low unemployment is, yet for the average person, they feel things are getting worse not better. We need a different measure of quality of life that measures from the bottom up, because to the average person, GDP numbers don't mean very much and half the time contradict themselves, and the current system makes it far more difficult to get an idea on what the quality of life is like from one country to another. Like you said, economic growth doesn't mean the people feel it, it's quite common in the UK and US that for the last 2 decades have bragged about good economic growth, yet for the average person, they feel things are going backwards not forwards, Brexit, Trump, these are clear signs that a lot of people are not happy in those countries and want big changes that they are willing to vote in ways they normally wouldn't. Popularise movements usually rise when people are not happy with how things are going, considering we are seeing it in the US, UK and many European countries, it suggests there's something not right and the mainstream parties are not solving so voters are getting more desperate and voting in more radical elements in politics to see if that will shake things up. If the mainstream political parties want to reduce the risk of the far left and far right, they better start delivering on growth that people actually feel.
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