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Comment by fbnt | Hacker News Reader

The situation here is getting more and more anachronistic each day, they are this close to make me seriously angry. The country is run by a mass of greedy, corrupt, paranoid, elderly individuals with chronic sexual disorders who completely lost touch with reality. And the italian equivalent of 'joe the plumber' isn't that much of a good person either. I can trust no one anymore.

I don't really know how to deal with all this. Maybe we should outsource our parliament. We should really hire people from other countries to do the job. Don't worry, the pay is really good, the weather is fine, and you'll always have good food for lunch. Sit in our parliament, you make the laws that helps us grow as a decent developed country while making sure that the justice system works well, and we'll follow them.

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I proposed to a friend that maybe Italy isn't ready to be an adult country yet - it needs a foster parent to hold its hand for a little while. He recommended Germany, but I pointed out that it didn't work out quite so well last time.

I was thinking more about Norway, the Netherlands or some scandinavian countries.. I understand your concern with Germany, we're quite some different countries now btw :)

I'd like to see the Scandinavian countries dealing with the mafia... no, not the one you see in movies that cuts horses' heads, but the one that blows up motorways.

I'd be more than happy to run Italy for a few years.

First, I'd lower the costs of creating an Srl (limited liability company) from thousands of euro to at most 100.

Second, I'd get serious about collecting taxes from people that owe them, and try and get rid of some of the ridiculous taxes.

Third, I'd put guys with machine guns at the crosswalks with orders to turn cars that don't stop for pedestrians into swiss cheese.

+1 for the outsourcing proposal.

On a side note, it strikes me that Americans call 'administration' what we call 'governement'... It speaks a lot about how our politicians see themselves...

That's just a side-effect of presidential vs parliamentary executive bodies. Presidents have 4 year administrations, parliamentary majorities have x-year coalition governments.

Agree, but maybe we should just outsource it to normal people: the kind of people that haven't got their tentacles around everything that happened in the last 50 years! Like these http://www.beppegrillo.it/movimento/ although the outsourcing idea isn't half bad as long as they're not all former bankers! :)

Get angry?

its really easy to sit about and get angry, perhaps post some stuff on the internet, real change only happens with action.

Vote with your feet.

Maybe that'd make for a good startup? We outsource your government!

Of course, if things get bad enough, Italy could always adopt a successful country's laws and practices. Just pretend to be a German provice, for example; follow all their laws and proceedings, adopt their charter, etc, etc. Then after a while once things stablize it can be customized to fit Italy.

> Maybe that'd make for a good startup? We outsource your government!

It's been tried, and it was incredibly profitable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_East_India_Company

Indeed, it was in a sense the origin of the modern limited-liability corporation, the foundation of modern capitalism. Not so good for the people whose government was outsourced, though.

> And the italian equivalent of 'joe the plumber' isn't that much of a good person either.

What? Joe the Plumber was a right-wing patsy who was nothing more than an agent for the GOP to help sell some kind of bullshit "I'm overtaxed by democracts" disingenious message in an especially corrupt election season known for Sarah Palin running as VP and GOP regulars going to debates and asking what McCain will do about Obama hiding the fact that he's a secret Muslim. Is he a hero to Italians? If anything, he would be cheering Berlusconi on.

I wasn't talking about the actual Joe the plumber, I was simply referring to the 'average person', the 'average joe' if you wanna keep the naming reference. Italians just have no idea of who/what Joe the plumber is.

In the US, "Joe the Plumber" isn't a substitute for "Joe Six-Pack" or "Joe Smith," its a specific reference to a famous controversial person. That's like me calling the average Italian a "little Mussolini."

My bad, I didn't know that. Thanks.

It was a general reference referring to no one in particular, before the election of 2008.

No, that was still Joe Sixpack and Average Joe and Joe from Main Street. Joe the Plumber was always a specific person, but it didn't matter while he was a proxy.

There are not many countries better than that, because most politicians become "prostitutes of publicity" sooner or later. And in the parliament then 99% of the time they throw mud at other politicians, it's not about showing the best way to go - it derives to blocking all other ways.

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