ROME, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Italy's current economic and social status is one of demoralization and decline, with its people suffering "painful marginalization," a study shows.
A report on the state of the nation, issued Friday by the think tank Censis, said Italian society has become apathetic and needs to rediscover its "desire" to avoid both a decline of motivation and respect for law, ANSA reported.
The appraisal said 40 percent of Italian families had no savings and 91 percent of families with a sole unemployed wage earner were at risk of poverty.
The report said the country had suffered through the recession with ''an evident struggle to get by and with painful marginalization in the labor market.'' With Italy passing an austerity budget to try to curtail its deficit, addressing these issues was made even more difficult, ANSA said.
Italians are turning to domestic violence, bullying, promiscuity, petty crime and overspending, the report said.
''We are in a society dangerously marked by emptiness,'' the report said. UPI
