PENSION CRISIS AND AGEING POPULATION... AND THE MAFIA OF OLD POLITICIANS

Here is a story from Economist:

"On the contrary, Italian men stop work and begin living off the state at the average age of 60.7, among the youngest in Europe. In Sweden, by contrast, male workers keep going until 64.3. Italy can ill afford such easy-going retirement. It has one of the European Union's fastest-ageing populations, and its highest levels of both pension spending (about 15% of GDP) and public debt (107% of GDP in 2006)... The government's capitulation on pensions highlights the growing power of the trade unions and their allies in the two communist parties of the ruling coalition. At first, their impact (which also showed up in a tax-and-spend 2007 budget), was offset by the liberalising moves of ministers nearer the political centre. But the reformist drive is weakening visibly."

Source: Economist, La dolce pensione (link)