Reaganite Independent: USA + 8 Years of Hillary = We're a GIANT ITALY

While fiscal-houses-of-cards like Greece, Spain, and Portugal have frightened Euro-watchers in recent years with their shaky finances/debt,
some observers even wonder-aloud whether relatively-wealthy France is next.

But Italy is truly still the 'sick man of Europe' -already past the point of no return- and of course debt/socialism/big government is what's done it
(same garbage 'progressives' have been ramming down our throats
for 5+ years now):

Italian national debt exceeds 130% of GDP (US currently = 62%, but some experts say this number is not truly representative of the dire situation we're already in)

Italy's high tax rates and Kafka-esque bureaucracy have asphyxiated entrepreneurship -the only real engine of job growth in a free economy- same as Obama has been doing.

Depending on established industries (and government jobs) for 'prosperity' has killed actual Italian economic growth: as recently as 2002, industrial output exceeded that of Germany- but that seems just a distant memory now, and the Italian economy hasn't enjoyed any real growth for over a decade. Industrial output on the tattered boot has in-fact shrunk all the way back to the same levels as the 1980s.

As with Obama's 'stimulus' and green-energy boondoggles, Rome gives cash to politically-connected companies to 'create jobs'.
Of course that doesn't work, as witnessed by Italy's 15% real unemployment, zero economic growth, and a pitiful 58% labor-participation rate (US is at 64% -a scary record low- and trending down) -and the debt just keeps piling-up.

However, those with government jobs have it made: many just sit-around, like a Gambino-family 'no-work' position: in Sicily there are 28,000 forestry rangers (more than Canada!) and almost 1000 ambulance drivers with no ambulance to drive. But no Italian voter with a do-nothing job or on unemployment benefits can afford to vote against all this... they're owned, as are so many Obama has handed government jobs/no-bid contracts to.

Italy's union rules -as with Obama's UAW backers and federal government jobs- make it nearly impossible to fire anybody, taking great care of those on the inside, while depressing fresh hiring utterly. The Italian youth unemployment rate resembles
US urban-ghetto areas, i.e. a hope-crushing 40-50%.

As we've already seen here in the Obama era, an incredible # of Italian 20-30-somethings still live with their parents, with precious little opportunity for gainful employment as a gloom of terminal decline sets the tone for their whole coming life.

And after being promised so much -and delivered so little- by Italy's leftists over the years, Italians have become fatally disillusioned. Rather than turn to the right and embrace the painful reforms necessary to save the nation, the people have just given up and stopped paying attention... as is often the case in the US already.