A clash of world views.

Editor,

"Although Italy has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe (7.9 percent as of August), that’s because so many people aren’t looking for jobs. Only 57 percent of people ages 15 to 64 were employed in 2010, one of the lowest rates in the world. Whatever the official retirement age (60 for women, 65 for men), under Italy’s complex retirement laws anyone qualifies for a pension after 40 years of contributions, and thanks to earlier and more generous programs, many retire even sooner — over half a million Italians retired before age 50, according to a small business group report released this week."

We have a clash of world views here.

Debt mongers, corporations, and other global capitalists perceive the function of 99% of human beings to be to "work" and thus generate profits for the 1% who control the political and financial levers of human society.

Meanwhile people fighting for economic democracy view the function of the global economy to be to provide, in a democratically agreed fashion, the necessities of life -- food, shelter, clothing, education, health care, clean water, clean air, open space, cultural enrichment -- to human beings and their offspring, as well as to protect the life support systems of the planet Earth.

The paragraph I quoted from your article demonstrates the control that the corporate 1% have over the framing of the economic and social issues facing humanity at this time.

Re: "The Spotlight Now Shines on Italy" (10/29/2011)