WHACK OF THE WEEK-Italian Politics

For the last week, I have been traveling in Italy. It is my last BC vacation (before child) and my wife and I are enjoying it.

One thing that I have noticed in Italy is that the level of messed up politics far exceeds that of US. Talk to Italians about their political system and you consistently get a Whack Em All sentiment. Their biggest complaint--corruption. Think about it-despite all of the political differences in US, we rarely bring out corruption as our biggest issue. To say it in another way- we in US argue about how much money government can spend and on what. In Italy the question is how much money reaches the treasury to begin with.

This issue of politicians siphoning money of the top is even worth in developing countries-serving as one of the largest reason for suffering economy. And when the population does not have faith in the government they are much more likely not to pay taxes. That is what we found in Italy-many hotels want cash only to avoid paying taxes, which again decreases money in the coffers, creating a vicious cycle.

So lets give our political system its due - Americans have more integrity and trust in their government than many other countries... for now.