Charlie Wilson wrote:
"Calif Bill" wrote:

the system is paid for with high taxes. $3+ a gallon on fuel, and high
tax rates.

(gasp) You mean middle class Italians don't drive around in 6000 pound
SUV's like middle class Americans do, just because they can? What a backward
and contemptible society they must be!

Also, we get to have $3+ a gallon gas *without* high gas taxes used to
pay for government services.....

Anyway, the burden of high taxes on Italians is widely overestimated.
They simply evade them! And when the financial police (yes, that's
right) come around, they simply bribe them. It all works out in the
end. No joke. The biggest problem I had finding an apartment when
I first arrived was finding a landlord who didn't want me to sign two
rental agreements: the "real" one showing the actual rent, and another,
showing a much lower rent, he could file with the tax authorities....