Brilliant: Italy introduces a basic income

Since the last elections, the wind in Italy has changed quite radically.

It seems that the Italians have managed to usher in a peaceful change of system by democratic political means.

One of the first success stories was the closure of the ports to the smugglers’ boats, and now the first “sea rescuers” are even being charged with aiding and abetting human trafficking (German)! But that is not all: with the introduction of the citizens’ income (a basic income), Luigi Di Maio of the Five Star Movement is keeping one of his most important election promises, which probably won him so many votes. Interestingly, Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister from the right-wing camp, has nodded the revolutionary plan through.

Bloomberg explains why the bold project was able to win a majority at all:

“The idea of a ‘citizens’ income’. This concept (a less radical version of the ‘universal basic income’ tested by Finland) could in theory appeal to both left and right: the former because it can reduce inequality, the latter because it can cut bureaucracy in the welfare state.”

The mainstream media largely take a negative view of this socio-political revolution:

Wirtschaftswoche (German), for example, reported that the citizens’ income was “like Hartz IV, only worse”, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung (German) even wrote that no other government project revealed so clearly how the coalition of Cinque Stelle and the far-right Lega had led Italians into a “dictatorship of unreality”. (Soberly considered, it is rather the current system, in which 1 % of the world’s population owns more than the other 99 %, that should be called a dictatorship of unreality. Now we also know which per cent the media belong to.)

Italy is indeed heading into uncharted territory, and the challenge is enormous. While single people are entitled to a basic income of around 800 euros, families of four can expect roughly 1,300 euros, which by Italian standards is much more than mere social assistance. With it, Di Maio simply wants to abolish poverty in Italy – and he will, because the money needed is there. It is only a question of distribution. What is particularly interesting is that the redistribution is not to be accompanied by a tax increase. Matteo Salvini seems to have something better in mind, which, as expected, does not sit particularly well with the Bilderberg media either.

“The gold belongs to the Italian people, not to anyone else,” Salvini, deputy prime minister and leader of the Lega, told reporters.

According to the Financial Times, he actually wants to seize the gold reserves of the Italian central bank in order to give them back to the people – and that should also please Beppe Grillo, the founder of the Five Star Movement, who saw through the fraud of the financial mafia long ago:

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”(…) They are the presidents of four banks that print money and lend it. They print money and lend it… print and lend… We can no longer grasp what the truth is. We can no longer understand whether medicine is good or bad for us. Whether a news report is true or not. We can no longer tell debt from credit, or can we? Is it true that we are endlessly told that our national debt amounts to 2.5 million billion lire? If there is a debtor, there is also a creditor. Correct? Who the hell do we owe all this money to? I mean… who the hell do we owe this money to that they have been getting on my nerves about for 10 years? Ourselves? Fine, I owe it to myself, I claim damn all back, so we are quits, go to hell. Right? That is a debt system, that is a terrible system. (…)”

“If the money belongs to us… why do they lend it to us? (…) Someone might ask, ‘Grillo, what the hell are you trying to say? The Bank of Italy is the bank of the Italian state.’ Not at all! The Banca d’Italia is a private joint-stock company owned by ten insurance companies, ten foundations and ten banks. These are all joint-stock companies whose owners are always the same. We will never find out who they are. But they are always the same. The companies are based in the Cayman Islands. They print money, out of nothing, and lend it to us. (…)”

Conclusion: Viva Italia – it gives me goosebumps! At least it does me, because I never thought there could be a democratic political way out. In the last elections, Italy seems to have found honest and above all courageous candidates who genuinely stand up for people’s interests. In doing so, they are putting massive pressure on their neighbouring countries, which, economically speaking, ought actually to be in better shape.