[bryanrasmussen]

highly religious countries trend more conservative.

Italy is a highly conservative country.

Not sure if that explains their financial problems, probably not.

on edit: An Italian coworker just pointed out he wouldn't say Italy was very conservative, which I guess in a lot of ways is true - especially when compared to U.S and some other countries.

Maybe actually the 'Conservative' - 'Liberal' labeling doesn't work well in this case, for example Italians believe in free health care and in my experience do a better job at it than Denmark. In the U.S free health care is "anti-conservative"

[ffhhttt]

I wouldn’t define Italy as highly conservative especially the north where most of economic activity is concentrated. If we did that we’d have to say that some Eastern European countries are “ultra” conservative.

> Not sure if that explains their financial problems, probably not.

I would say Switzerland is pretty conservative as well (if not more in some aspects but less in others)

[bryanrasmussen]

yeah also there is a strong divide on this kind of thing between North and South, my experience is mainly Naples on down.

[toyg]

To expand a bit: Italy is economically conservative. People don't like to invest, banks don't like to lend to businesses, and when businesses fail (which is just part of the capitalism game) everyone cries for the State to make them whole. Most people favour long-term assets like real estate, and as soon as any profit is generated it is typically "privatized" rather than reinvested.

Obviously I'm painting with a very broad brush. There are virtuous businesses, like anywhere; and it's still a G8 country with a massive economy. But it's not a country that, as a whole, values economic risk-taking. Somewhat ironically, I think we were more daring when the overall system was less free-market-oriented (the Italian State used to own a lot of large "strategic" businesses directly, up until the '90s), maybe because rich folks had to show they were better than the State at running things.

On social issues, it's a different (and very complex) story.

[ffhhttt]

> To expand a bit: Italy is economically conservative. People don't like to invest, banks don't like to lend to businesses, and when businesses fail

That’s true. A lot (most?) of Europe seems to be like that, though