Just Sayin'

"The trouble with Italy, particularly the southern provinces, is that there is no middle class. You have the upper class, living in idleness and greater luxury than the nation can afford, and the peasant toilers under them, obliged to support this top-heavy fabric, and an expensive army and navy besides, by lives of hardship and deprivation." National Geographic, “Emigration to America an Industry.” Dec. 1909.