Alessandro Borghese and the privilege of the parachute
The phrases of Borghese Inside a Cook service, a culinary insert of Il Corriere della Sera, the cook, son of the actress Barbara Bouchet and the Neapolitan entrepreneur Luigi Borghese, graduated from the American Overseas School of Rome, said the kids “prefer to hang out on weekends to have fun with friends. And when they decide to try, they do it with the arrogance of those who feel they have arrived. And the claim to receive important rewards. Immediately ". To then drop the bomb, to tell the truth already quite defused since it fits into a rich repertoire of assorted indifference on the world of work in an enviable pantheon ranging from Flavio Briatore to Guido Barilla.
Although this time there is one more element: why ever get paid? “I may be unpopular, but I have no problem saying that working to learn doesn't necessarily mean getting paid. I served on cruise ships with "only" approved board and lodging. Stop. It was fine with me: the opportunity was worth the salary - added the 45-year-old cook and TV face -. Today there are kids with no art or part who do not have the slightest intention of investing in themselves. There is no devotion to work, there is no attachment to the shirt. Sometimes I get the impression that the new generations are looking for a job hoping not to find it because, when you call them to give them a chance, they can't be found. They give me, it's frustrating ”. The attachment to the shirt, yes: theirs.
There is a bit of the whole repertoire of Italian paternalism, inside these words and inside the others previously pronounced in which the chef says that if you want to become like he “you have to work hard. No one has ever given me anything. I broke my back for this work that is made up of sacrifices and self-denial. I skipped my daughters birthday parties, anniversaries with my wife. I swam with one stroke always ahead of the others because I love my job. True, the pandemic has left its mark, but now we have turned around: the restaurants are back to work, the people are there ". There are people but - this is the broader picture of Cook's investigation, of which I would suggest reading alongside this other by Munchies on the working conditions in certain Italian kitchens - there is no staff and no applications arrive.
Working for free Let's face it clearly: the importance of experience is not discussed here. On the contrary. But the fact that this has to be free. In hindsight, this is the most burning of possible social injustices: in a blocked society like the Italian one, where children often follow their parents' footsteps willingly or despite themselves, the possibility of certain paths (it also concerns, in its own way, the journalistic world and a thousand others) is only granted to those who can experience that phase without too many thoughts. There is money and maybe a family house, or you don't have many in your pocket but you know you are moving in a context that is still guaranteed where nothing is required other than to hold the position in order to survive those who, at a certain point, do not will have more than the conditions to continue that path. And he will give up, leaving us free field. On the other hand, how is it happening under the eyes of these prestigious restaurateurs who can't find someone to let them work: reading their words, on the other hand, who would ever want to work for them? Homo homini lupus, but whoever has the family covering their backs is perhaps a little more lupus than the others.
Even a recent research which, for the first time in years, tells that after all 'Italian social elevator is not completely blocked, however it confirms that being born into a rich family grants a 33% chance to maintain the original social status. On the contrary, and with many territorial differences, a child born to parents in the lower income bracket has only an 11% chance of reaching the higher bracket as an adult. The first are the children of those who can afford to work for free, or earn very little - even breaking their backs, in some cases, in others just by limiting themselves to resisting a minute longer than the others - in order to access the exclusive club of certain environments and collect a in due course the dividends of that luxury. Others don't have this social bonus and need to earn decent bucks right away. Yes, even as they accumulate experience. There are ad hoc tools and contracts, including the apprenticeship one, we even brought a slippery school-work alternation into high school and then we ask a twenty-year-old to gain experience for years, for free, and without saying a word "because we did this" ?
From all this history, a precise by-product of the crisis phases, the other side of the coin is missing: what were the starting conditions that allowed you to grant yourself, for example the case of Borghese, three years old on cruise ships with only room and board? It's not social envy, it's the facts. The labor market is a product of social and demographic balances and imbalances and ultimately of the distribution of a country's wealth. It should be an engine of revolution for those factors but, in Italy, it is often just a photocopy: if you don't put your hand to them, it is at least suicidal to feed a painful generational chase.
