Welfare will be able to return to providing essential universalist services, cushioning excessive inequalities and supporting people only with the return of work as the primary source of opportunities for income and social advancement. This is what emerges from the Fourth Censis-Tendercapital Report on ‘Social Sustainability and the Renewed Challenge of Italian Welfare’, presented at the Senate with the aim of drawing attention, through the opinions, behaviours and values of Italians, to the difficulties encountered by the two pillars of the Italian social model, families and the State, which are called upon to measure themselves against new constraints and global crises.
“Our society,” said Censis president Giuseppe De Rita, “is marked by a crucial element: the fear of future uncertainty. It is what most conditions expectations and often makes us see reality blacker than it is. Unfortunately, inflation, war, and the energy crisis have generated problems, but so far social sustainability in Italy has held up well. The real risk is for the near future to continue floating on fear and, in this situation, the worst thing is to rely on opinionism, rather than reasoning about the real chemistry of our society’.
‘The data of the Fourth Censis-Tendercapital Report on social sustainability and Italian welfare,’ said Tendercapital’s president, Moreno Zani, ‘clearly highlight the difficulties that the two pillars of the Italian social model, families and the state, are facing today. In fact, the economic straits of many households are growing and, despite the fact that both income and consumer spending have held up well in 2022, a severe contraction in their savings must be noted. A situation of instability, in short, that generates uncertainty and concern for the future, but also the conviction that we can work for a new inclusive, prosperous and sustainable welfare”.