Sunday,
October 07
The
ANNOTICO Report
Telegraph.co.uk
-
By Malcolm Moore in
October
5, 2007
The hordes of Italians devoted to their mammas are to be offered money to leave home, the government has stated. Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, the
finance minister, said it was vital to get reluctant Italians to fly the nest
and become more independent. Italian men make up the bulk of those staying at home, at around 67 per cent, and a mocking phrase has even been coined to describe them: "Mammoni" or "Big Mummy's boys". Next year's budget will offer almost ?700 in tax relief to Italians under 30 earning less than ?10,500 a year, and half that to those earning more. In addition, the government will pay 19 per cent towards the cost of renting accommodation for university students if they study at least 65 miles away from their home. Alessandro Rosino, an economist at Milan's Bocconi University, said young Italians are forced to live at home by the country's rising cost of living and lack of work. "The average wage for Italians
aged between 25 to 30 is only half of what their
peers in "And almost 40 per cent who do manage to leave home have to return." Other commentators said the
phenomenon is costing Renato Brunetta, a Right-wing politician, said there is "little movement either geographically, socially or professionally and little propensity to risk". But Flavio
Insinna, a television quiz show host who is "I have never felt the need to move. The reason is not because of money, it is because I love them," he told La Stampa newspaper. Many other Italians happily send their laundry home to their mothers, and 43 per cent, when they do finally move out, rent or buy homes less than a mile from their parents. However, recent research by two Italian academics has shown that the blame may lie with "clingy parents" rather than lazy children. Marco Manacorda and Enrico Moretti said the vast majority of Italian parents enjoyed the company of their adult children, and used their extra income to "bribe" them into staying at home. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/05/wital105.xml |
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