Uproar over tax break for "big babies"
/uproar: 騒乱/
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More than a third of Italian men over the age of 30 live at home with their
parents, a phenomenon blamed on sky-high apartment rents and bleak job
prospects as much as a /liking/ for mamma's cooking.
/bleak: 希望のない/
/liking: 好み
take a liking for ~を好きになる
・After only twenty minutes, she took a liking to [for] Ed. :
わずか20分で、彼女はエドが気に入った。/
Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa offered to come to the rescue with a 1,000 euro ($1,411) /tax break/ for 20- and 30-something Italians who rent. "With the budget we'll help young people who don't marry and still live with their parents get out of the house."
/tax break: 税控除/
The comment was immediately /condemned/ by politicians from all shades of the political /spectrum/ who said young Italians could hardly be blamed for a /sputtering economy/ and high rents.
/condemn: を非難する/
/sputter economy: 失速しつつある経済、景気失速/
"This absurd /gaffe/ shows how he's probably not clear how /precarious/ is the
situation /afflicting/ an entire generation -- the /first generation/ that has
to deal with social conditions worse than those of its parents," said Francesco
Caruso, a communist from Prime Minister Romano Prodi's coalition.
/absurd: ばかげた/
/gafee: フランス語〉失敗、しくじり、へま、失言{しつげん}、失策{しっさく}、〔知らず識らずに犯す〕社会的失態{しゃかい てき しったい}/
/precarious: 不安定{ふあんてい}な、心許ない、おぼつかない unsafe: dangerously unstable, unsteady,
uncertain, or insecure
precarious assumption あやふやな仮定
The world economy is in a precarious position today. 今日世界経済は不安定な状況にある。/
/afflict: 悩ます
・He was afflicted with a painful disease. : 彼は痛みを伴う病気に苦しんだ。/
/first generation: young generation/
Italy is holding a broader debate over its increasingly /geriatric/ society where the best jobs are often occupied by those over 50, squeezing out the young and ambitious. Many Italians do not graduate until their late 20s and end up in poorly paid internships or with short-term contracts.
/geriatric: 高齢の, relating to senior citizens/
A sharp rise in the cost of living since the introduction of the euro has not helped, and even a 1,000 euro tax break will not be enough to help young Italians stand on their own feet.
"Renting an apartment 30 years ago cost a quarter of the salary of a worker," writer Aldo Nove who has penned a book called "My Name is Roberta, I'm 40 years old and earn 250 euros a month."
/seniority system/
/meritocracy /
/年功序列の給与体系 seniority-based pay scale/