Populist campaign for minimum income draws Italian marchers

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Frances D'emilio, Associated Press Updated 2:19 pm, Saturday, May 20, 2017


ROME (AP) — The head of Italy's populist 5-Star Movement led thousands in a 15-mile march Saturday to demand a guaranteed minimum income for citizens as the party seeks to widen its appeal in hopes of clinching the national power for the first time.

Comic Beppe Grillo described the march between the Perugia and Assisi, another Umbrian town 25 kilometers (15 miles) away, as a way to express support for human dignity.


The 5-Stars contend that aid for the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have arrived in Italy after being rescued at sea in the last few years risks coming at the expense of Italians struggling during the nation's economic slump.

Assisi is the birthplace of St. Francis, who championed the needs of the poor.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Populist-campaign-for-minimum-income-draws-11160898.php

[sandensea]

1. We have a minumum income policy for the uber rich (bailouts)

Nothing wrong with having one for the poor as well.

[TomCADem]

2. I Thought Populism Was Being Pro-Tax Cuts To The Rich...

...with cuts to the health care and the minimum wage? After all, I recall being lectured that Trump won because he was a populist.

[sandensea]

3. The media conflates populism with demagoguery.

Populists almost always support social democratic economic policies - if not socialist outright. Their policies usually confront, rather than coddle, elites.

While it's true that some populists have also been demagogues (Egypt's Nasser and Argentina's Perón, notably), Trump is a fascist demagogue with a clearly elitist, corporate lobbyist-written domestic agenda.