I'm convinced that the wider north american society wants to believe that italians are simpletons more concerned with his salami and provolone paninis than anything of substance.
I know a real estate lawyer at my local starbucks who tells me that he arranges options on lands radiating out from the GTA, almost all of which are in the hands of a handful of very weatlhy italian families.
Remember that Italy is very poor land; no resources to speak of, 82% of the land mountainous and relatively unproductive, mostly denuded of trees, and with many natural barriers to trade within its territory, like the Apenine mountains. Compare all that with Germany (the mighty Rhine river, enormous coal deposits with powered the initail stages of its industrialisation), France with her fertile plains drained by vast rivers like the Loire, which even today produces the most food in Europe. England, with deposits of tin, peat and coal for fuel, and the constant rain that made her sheep's hair so long that it made Florence rich converting it into the famous Florentine red serge cloth (until Henry VII wised up and imposed an export tax on raw wool in the late 15th century, ruining Florence and making england's first fortune.)
Factoid: with debt/average income of only 34%, including mortgage debt, Italy imports $64 billion from Germany. With a debt/average income ratio in England of around 170%, her imprts from Germany amount to only 66 Billion. So if one were to scale up italian debt/personal income to the british or even french averages, then italian capacity to consume would far outstrip england's. And yet the convention wisdom over here is that England's an advanced, rich country and Italy's a shithole. Errr, not quite true, I'm afraid. Ok, southern Italy is a disgrace, but why quibble.
