Jeff Springer
As of 2006, the highest tax rate in Italy has been roughly 43%. Unfortunately, Italy also has the lowest GDP per capita of any country covered so far — $30,631, good for 27th on the International Monetary Fund’s list. Various economic indicators portray Italy negatively, not the least of which is debt as a percentage of GDP being higher than 100%, according to EconomicsHelp.org. Italy also appears to have a sluggish male work population. According to Mint.com’s article on bizarre tax breaks around the world, Italy once toyed with the idea of offering males 30 and over a tax incentive to leave their mother’s homes and start their own lives. The problem, Mint writes, is ” is apparently so bad that a third of all men over 30 live at home” in Italy. Naturally, this segment of the population is not participating in economic growth by having their own homes or apartments, utility bills, and the like. The case could be made that overly generous government benefits have softened the population’s will to work.
