The dummy tries to fix the system.

If one wants to survive in Italy, honesty may not be the best policy. Instead, one may be better off going along with the corrupt system. Allow your life to get bogged down in the bureaucracy. Take, for instance, the water system in a local community. In America, you get billed regularly based on the volume of water used. In Italy, you may be lucky and not get billed at all. Because of bureaucratic mix up. They don’t keep very good records. But you are the honest sort and don’t wanna take advantage of free water. Or maybe you fear that some day the bureaucracy will catch up with you and bill you for a lifetime of water. All in one big hunk. So you trot down to the local waterworks to try to get the matter straightened out. First, they’ll give you 20 pages of forms to fill out and send you from one desk to another. And maybe to another building or two. And they’ll give you a quizzical look, wondering why you are the exceptional being wanting to get things right. Maybe like a dutiful German. Anyway, I saw someone trying to do just that today. And I tried to tell ‘em, ‘You are absolutely crazy trying to fix the system. Just count your blessings and keep taking the free water. Don’t start complaining until you ain’t getting water anymore.’ As I see it, the true Italian thrives because of the bureaucracy. And the dummy tries to fix the system. –Jim Broede