So the past week and half I have been on holidays back in Italy (I live in Germany). At least here, in the South, your status still greatly depends on 1) if you managed to raise a family (single 40 years old ultra rich Corporate managers don't get much credit); 2) if you have a good network of friends (and people here don't look down at blue collars). My father was a blue collar worker and he gets a lot of respect for doing well 1 and 2.

While this is not ideal (I think 1 and 2 are part of the reasons many Italian lack the ambition Americans have), it's a very good way to live a very decent life as an individual. At a macro level I believe pushing on 1 and 2 will kill your economy, on a micro level (aka if I was a shrink), I would strongly advise them.

P.s. of course, 1 and 2 work well in a world where you have USA, where people do kill themselves to deliver loads of innovation to the whole planet (see: internet, space exploration, etc.).

P.p.s. of course USA works well because it attracted talent across the world to deliver loads of innovation (see: immigrants)