Alberto Alesina, who studied economics as an undergraduate at Bocconi before a career at Harvard, bemoaned publicsector jobs as creating a “culture of dependency” whereby “residents in the South [of Italy] demand more public employment in order to take advantage of a large income premium and a greater job security” (Danninger, Alesina, and Rostagno 1999, 3– 4). To Alesina and others before him, public employment was synonymous with individuals who were unprepared to “face the market” (ibid.). In other words, citizens were unwilling to accept high enough exploitation.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 1242