In the Agence France Presse article “Ever Older, South Ever Poorer,” the author criticizes Italy’s population as too low; it’s also the point that makes the income gap between south and north wider. According to the article, the percentage of old people has become higher and higher. Younger people become lazier and they drop out of schools easily. They do not get jobs because the elders are still able to work. Lacking job opportunities, what people could do is to emigrate to the north looking for more chances to get better works. Besides the aging problems, female labor force is also a big issue for Italy. Although the female labor force has grown rapidly from 2000 to 2005, compared to the other European countries, the statistic is still way below the average. I agree with what the author said from the article that Italy is the greyest country in Europe. And it truly has a big problem toward their population. Hence, the population situation leads Italy to an economic crisis.
This article is valid because the problem of Italian population truly influences the Italian economy, from the health care to their aging people, policies toward other immigrants and unemployment for females and young laborers. All these things influence the economy in Italy. The most important thing is how could Italian government solve these problems.
First, government should also help the needy old people in the country. Since Italy is the greyest country in the Europe Union, the Italian government needs to put more effort into taking care of the old generation. From the article I have read, it talks about the pension problem of the old generation. Because these old people live longer than we expected, they are probably going to earn much money to keep their own living. As a result, government should improve the retirement system. For instance, they should set up new laws for the old people that they are available to work more than twenty five to thirty years. In order to save enough money for the rest of their lives, it is important to prolong the time of working years. In other words, to set up the new law for the major public, the old generation is the first important thing in Italy. The policy will help and improve the aging population and it could also solve the economic problem. If there is more and more labor force in one’s country, that means more people could help the country work. In fact, the less unemployment the wealthier the country should be.
Next, it will be better to have a policy about having more children that the females will get a perfect and well-organized program which will give the women money when they are willing to have children. The immigration in Italy seriously affects the racial problem, because there are many immigrants who are from different cultures and different races. They might bring their own culture to an Italian town. Southern Italy used to be the poorest place in this country. Nevertheless, the decline of the birth rate makes those small towns dying. Government should have more policies to encourage the people in southern Italy to have more chances to work. This action would help the Italian government work against the huge amount of immigrants’ population.
Finally, the number in the labor force of females and the young are lower than the average of other European countries. On one hand, many females are reluctant to have a baby because they are afraid of losing their job during the time they are pregnant and giving birth. Moreover, having a baby will take women much time taking care of the infants. They need to hire a nanny or a babysitter when they do not have time to look after the child. It not only takes their time but also costs them money to have children. All of these problems lead the women in Italy to have a low birth rate. On the other hand, because the old generation is still able to work in this country, they have gotten most of the working opportunities. As a result, in the poorest area of Italy, the southern part, the government could develop more industry areas for the young group.
To sum up, the population problem affects Italy and cause economic crisis. Solving the aging generation retirement problem could enhance their society. Government policies which encourage females to have more children will fight against the immigrant group. It could help Italy to preserve their own culture. Female labor could also make the Italian economy have a big improvement if the Government provides better policies.
Reference:
Agence France Presse (2007, May 24) Ever older, south ever poorer. Retrieved on July 10, 2007 from LexisNexis.
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