Italy’s dire economic crisis has led to a 60% rise in suicides, underlying the heavy price people are paying for austerity policies designed to benefit the 1%.
In 2012, there are 402 suicides linked to economic problems. This includes 184 business people and 168 unemployed, 35 employees and 8 pensioners.
This year alone, in the first 9 months, 164 people decided to take his own lives. The month of April – the month when companies release financial statements – saw 26 cases alone, while in July – the period in which you pay taxes – 24 cases were recorded.
The survey carried out by Link Lab, a socio-economic research organisation, also found that in the first nine months 82 who took their lives were among the unemployed and 67 among business people. Most are men.
Unemployment in Italy, the Eurozone’s third largest economy, is running at record levels of 12.6% or 3.24 million. The economy has contracted in 11 of the previous 12 quarters with latest forecasts for this year’s recession showing a 0.3% drop in GDP.
Italy’s economy has is now no bigger than it was in 2000 when it joined Europe’s Single Currency and accepted an uncompetitive exchange rate and deflationary budgetary straight-jacket imposed by Brussels and Frankfurt as a condition of Euro membership. Since the 2008 financial crisis caused by greedy bankers austerity policies have been cranked up and embedded in Euro member states constitutions via the Fiscal Compact treaty.
Italy isn’t the only country struggling under policies of austercide. Francois Hollande’s Socialist government failed to stick to election campaign promises to fight Chancellor Angela Merkel’s deflationary demands of the Eurozone and so France is stagnating. Even powerhouse Germany is looking likely to drop into an unexpected recession as well.
A study published last year – The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills – found that across Europe and Northern America the recession has been responsible for 10,000 suicides. The primary causes for these suicides were unemployment, having a home repossessed and falling into debt.
Link Lab Survey