The malaise of the Italian middle class: 45% have reduced consumption, 51% are pushing their children to go abroad

Afflicted by taxation, excluded from welfare, ignored in recognition. Yet, it is a middle class that endures: it invests in its children, keeps families and territories going with silent generosity. "But how much more can it take?" This is the question, and at the same time the cry of alarm, launched by Stefano Cuzzilla, commenting on the second report Cida-Censis 'Relaunching Italy from the middle class. Recognising skills and merit, rethinking taxation and welfare', commissioned by Cida, the Italian Confederation of Managers and Senior Executives, and presented today, 22 May, during a conference at the Chamber of Deputies.

Without getting around it too much, the middle class lives an unsustainable paradox: 'It is the country's holding point. It is too rich to receive aid, too poor to build a future,' added Cuzzilla, who has just been confirmed as head of Cida. Two out of three Italians feel middle class, but more than half fear that their children will be worse off. More than eight out of ten do not see the value of their skills recognised in their income. And more than 70 per cent ask for less tax on gross income.

The central contradiction that emerges from the report is this: the Italian middle class is not defined by income, but by cultural identity. Sixty-six per cent of Italians identify themselves as middle class, and for over 90 per cent what really counts is knowledge, level of education, acquired skills. But these values are no longer reflected in economic reality. The 82% of Italians who define themselves as middle class complain that merit is not recognised, that cultural capital does not translate into fair pay. This is where a decisive fracture opens up: between human capital and economic capital. And when recognition does not arrive, the engine dies out: what was once an upward thrust becomes mere survival.

In recent years, more than half of the Italians who make up the social backbone of the country have seen their income stagnate, while more than one in four have seen it fall. Only 20 per cent declare an improvement. But more than retreating, the middle class today floats without perspective. Consumption also reflects this state: 45% have already reduced it, and the majority fear further cuts in the near future. It is not just an economic condition, it is a widespread social malaise that empties the future of hope. A future that, increasingly, the middle class can no longer imagine within the borders of the country.

Fifty per cent of parents from the country's productive heartland believe that their children will be worse off financially, and 51% hope that they will seek opportunities abroad, marking the definitive overtaking of the 'myth of elsewhere' over the dream of internal social mobility. In spite of this, the middle class continues to invest: 67% of middle class families with children living together incur extraordinary expenses to guarantee a future for their children, while more than 41% help their children and grandchildren economically, confirming their position as the country's first social shock absorber. Among pensioners in the report's target group, 47% regularly help their children or grandchildren, and 66% have financed or will finance at least one extraordinary expense. This 'silent generosity' is increasingly under pressure. Only 52% feel protected by welfare networks; the others oscillate between anxiety, uncertainty and outright insecurity. And savings, which have always been one of the hallmarks of the middle class, are eroding: 46% have reduced their ability to set aside resources, and 44% expect it to worsen over the next three years. When confidence in the future cracks, the need for protection grows: but it is precisely here that the system shows its deepest cracks.