As the article says - it isn't just Italy - it is practically global. The western world seems to be facing not just a monetary or fiscal crisis, but problems of what to do with large, well educated populations where there just isn't enough work:
ROME (AP) — They line up at soup kitchens by the thousands. Individual debt is rising, savings are eroding and many young people have simply given up, staying home without studying or even looking for a job.
They are Italy's invisible poor, unseen by tourists, ignored by the country's fat-cat politicians and living in a reality that's a far cry from former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's description of an affluent country where "the restaurants are full."
Or in the words of Francesa Zuccari, who runs a soup kitchen in Rome: "There is another city out there where people can't get to the end of the month."