Italy Is More Capitalist Than America
An unpopular opinion about wealth accumulation, taxation, and what capitalism actually means
Unpopular opinion: Italy is more capitalist than the United States.
The Paradox
Due to high taxation and low wages — even for qualified professions — the only way to build and accumulate wealth in Italy is to exploit a large number of other people to produce economic value and not redistribute it.
- In America, a skilled professional can accumulate meaningful wealth through their own labor. A software engineer, doctor, or lawyer can become genuinely wealthy by being good at their job.
- In Italy, the same professional hits a ceiling quickly. Taxes take a larger share, and salaries are compressed. The path to real wealth isn’t excellence in your craft — it’s owning things and capturing the surplus from others’ work.
What This Means
The American system rewards individual productivity. You can get rich by being really good at something.
The Italian system rewards capital ownership. You get rich by having other people work for you.
One of these is more “capitalist” in the classical sense. It’s not the one people expect.
The Implication
This isn’t an argument for or against either system. It’s an observation about incentives and outcomes.
If you want to understand how a society works, don’t look at its rhetoric. Look at how people actually build wealth.