Italians to Become Extinct, But Italian
Culture Will Survive ??
The
ANNOTICO Report
Truth
is often said in Jest.
Try
to overlook that Spengler has bought into the Myth
about Pasta coming from
YANKEE
NOODLE
Ask
Spengler
Dear Spengler,
I just became prime minister of
Only
10 years ago we accounted for almost 5% of world trade, but we are losing
market share to
of world trade has fallen to barely half that level.
Our
family firms are disappearing because Italians lack entrepreneurial spirit. Why,
every factory manager still goes home
to his mother's for lunch!
What
should I do?
Romano Prodi in
Dear Romano,
Your question implies its own answer. You think the problem is that Italian
factory managers insist on having lunch at their
mother's. Have you considered that the Italian mother's value on the world
market has risen by more than the value of an
Italian
factory has fallen? If you can't sell commodity industrial products, sell the
culinary art of the Italian mother, refined over centuries of pampering spoiled
sons.
Eight hundred years ago,
exceeds the global turnover of industrial valves. Flash-freeze
Italian Sunday dinners and air-freight them to
of Chinese tourists will descend on the factory towns of northern
Of course, this is only an interim solution, for Chinese cooks will learn to
prepare Italian food as well as the Italians, just as
Chinese
musicians will learn to play the Viennese classics as well as the Viennese.
But
you needn't worry about a long-term solution. Not only are your family firms
disappearing; with a birth rate of barely
1.2
children per female, your families are disappearing as well. But don't worry.
When you Italians become extinct, your
culture will be in good hands.
Spengler
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/
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