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Comment by roel_v | Hacker News Reader

"And in this article there are not even comparison of this crime (extortionate lending) in Italy with other countries."

I'm not sure what you mean by this, but if you're insinuating that it happens across Europe, then that's not true. The "extortionate lending market' so to say (of the extra-legal kind) is very, very small (to the point of non-existent) in Western European countries, whereas (according to this article and some others I've read) it's a sizable portion of Italy's GDP. That's an unacceptable situation.

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> "And in this article there are not even comparison of this crime (extortionate lending) in Italy with other countries."

> I'm not sure what you mean by this, but if you're insinuating that it happens across Europe, then that's not true.

Italian-based organized crime does its business everywhere in Europe with success.

The only difference is that in Italy this dirty business is not hidden at all because criminals also run "consumer branches", while in the rest of EU they hide themselves behind commercial banks or companies.

Take for example waste management and disposal. Most of EU and international waste goes through the hand of organised crime [1] that offer lower prices and more efficient services to municipalities and states. This always happens through proxy companies with crystal-clear records.

Germany thought it was free of organised crime. Then the Duisburg killing happened [2] and they opened their eyes.

[1] http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=83BVyffqnJEC&pg=PA117... [2] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafiamorde_von_Duisburg

You're right.

Some people don't understand the importance of Mafia in all the world - maybe 100 years ago it was limited to Italy, then it moved to USA, to East-Europe and so on, but mass-media still say it's limited to Italy. Ok, keep on living in the wonderland, I can't say any more..

They're "using" what they've earned in decades of selling drugs, prostitution and so on. Now they're honest employers recycling money. That's it.

I suggest you to read some books from Salvatore Lupo (Giovanni Falcone's "Cose di Cosa Nostra" too is a good introduction, ...), an Italian historian, whose activity is centered to study mafia and its origins.

Isn't their "higher efficiency" of waste disposal due to the fact they just dump it into the ocean rather than doing it properly?

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

The link also mentions the possibility that this is what pissed off Somalis and spurred the takeoff of piracy. (Not trying to justify it, please flame me for the right reason.)

> Isn't their "higher efficiency" of waste disposal due to the fact they just dump it into the ocean rather than doing it properly?

That is the "lower prices" part. The higher efficiency is due to the fact that the other legally-run companies are often hindered in their daily tasks by these organisations. In the last few years Italy has seen: fake strikes organised by bribed union leaders, waste treatment plants accidentally burned, key managers being forced to resign over "personal matters"…

You do not need to be that more efficient if you can make the others much less efficient.

That wikipedia page has an apostrophe in its URL:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_waste_dumping_by_t...

You are probably right. But until somebody shows me a table comparing OCSE countries, I keep thinking the writer of the article has watched too many movies of the Godfather.

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