According to this article in Der Spiegel, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, the finance minister of Italy's ruling Prodi government, has caused a political scandal over a throw-away reference to the " bamboccioni," or "big babies," who live with their parents well into their thirties. Padoa-Schioppa mentioned the bamboccioni in the middle of an Italian Senate hearing over Prodi's 2008 draft budget. He wants to establish a tax credit for young singles who rent apartments away from home. Der Spiegel reports:
While the lure of mamma's cooking and a free laundry service may be keeping some 30-somethings in the parental home, there are other factors beyond their control that make it difficult to cut those apron strings. Many Italians only leave university in their late 20s and then have to scrape by on the meager wages from internships or short-term contracts, while those in their 50s and 60s hog the better jobs. Exorbitant rents and a bleak job market also make it extremely difficult for young Italians to afford their own place.
I had two reactions to this piece. First: While the Italian job market is much tighter than America's (in part because of Italy's overly powerful trade unions), and Italian economic growth meager at best, there are similarities between the bamboccioni or mammoni and the young Americans in their "odyssey years" about whom David Brooks wrote the other day. And second: Remember Michael Kinsley's definition of a political gaffe. It's what happens, he once said, when a politician accidentally tells the truth.