One doesn't only encounter waste of taxpayers' money by the public sector in Italy.
But if the waste is combined with a high tax burden, a lack of investment and a barely existing social system as in Italy, then it might lead to the following, widespread attitude:
›The more money I give to the state, the bigger the waste.‹
The extent of the black economy, as a proportion of the gross domestic product (GDP), has been estimated at 25 to 40 percent in Italy.