---
title: Ozio - Miseria, Lavoro - Ricchezza (Idleness - Misery, Work - Wealth)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ozio-miseria-lavoro-ricchezza-prestito-1920/
description: 'Two-panel lithograph poster. Top, ''Ozio - Miseria'': a slouching, pipe-smoking man walks past an empty scale-pan while a chart shows the lira low against…'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Ozio - Miseria, Lavoro - Ricchezza (Idleness - Misery, Work - Wealth)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/ozio-miseria-lavoro-ricchezza-prestito-1920.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/ozio-miseria-lavoro-ricchezza-prestito-1920.jpg)

# Ozio - Miseria, Lavoro - Ricchezza (Idleness - Misery, Work - Wealth)

Two-panel lithograph poster. Top, 'Ozio - Miseria': a slouching, pipe-smoking man walks past an empty scale-pan while a chart shows the lira low against the dollar, pound and Swiss franc. Bottom, 'Lavoro - Ricchezza': two labouring men heave sacks of grain and wool onto the pan and the lira stands higher. The tell: the whole cost-of-living question is reduced to a two-state choice between idleness and work, ending in an appeal to subscribe to the Loan.

- **Date:** 1920
- **Period:** [Interwar](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=interwar)
- **Made by:** Unnamed Italian sponsor (Library of Congress: produced by industrialists and government authorities); no publisher or printer on the sheet
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Kingdom of Italy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=kingdom-of-italy)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed)
- **Regime:** [Nitti Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=nitti-government)
- **Leader:** [Francesco Saverio Nitti](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=francesco-saverio-nitti)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Fundraise](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=fundraise)
- **Themes:** [Economy and finance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=economy-finance), [Labor](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=labor)
- **Techniques:** [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress (World Digital Library collection)](https://www.loc.gov/item/2021670939/), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published Italy 1920, before 1931); LOC: unaware of any copyright or other restrictions Library of Congress, World Digital Library collection, item 2021670939; original at the Library of Modern and Contemporary History, Rome.

## Text on the object

Original (Italian) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
[top panel:] Ozio - Miseria
[chart headings:] Dollaro | Sterlina | Franco svizzero | Lira italiana
Prezzo in lire italiane
[chart scale figures not transcribed]

Il costo della vita è caro, perchè la Nazione non produce - La scarsezza dei prodotti deve essere quindi compensata con acquisti all'estero - Così come la scarsezza fa aumentare presso di noi il costo di tali prodotti, la richiesta all'estero ne determina colà un prezzo maggiore.

[lower panel:] Lavoro - Ricchezza
[chart headings:] Dollaro | Sterlina | Franco svizzero | Lira italiana
Prezzo in lire italiane
[chart scale figures not transcribed]
[on the sacks:] GRANO; LANA; [illegible, partly hidden]; SETA; [illegible]

La Nazione deve convincersi che solo l'aumento della produzione potrà diminuire il costo della vita - In tal modo la maggiore disponibilità di prodotti di casa propria eviterà allo Stato di dover richiedere all'estero quei prodotti che invece gli verranno offerti a condizioni vantaggiose - Per dare allo Stato la possibilità di agevolare l'aumento della produzione, occorre che tutti lavorino e chi ha denaro sottoscriva al Prestito.
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
[top panel:] Idleness - Misery
[chart headings:] Dollar | Sterling | Swiss franc | Italian lira
Price in Italian lire
[chart scale figures not transcribed]

The cost of living is high because the Nation does not produce - The scarcity of products must therefore be made up by purchases abroad - Just as the scarcity makes the cost of these products rise with us, the demand from abroad fixes a higher price for them there.

[lower panel:] Work - Wealth
[chart headings:] Dollar | Sterling | Swiss franc | Italian lira
Price in Italian lire
[chart scale figures not transcribed]
[on the sacks:] GRAIN; WOOL; [illegible, partly hidden]; SILK; [illegible]

The Nation must convince itself that only an increase in production can bring down the cost of living - In this way the greater availability of home-made products will spare the State from having to request abroad those products which will instead be offered to it on advantageous terms - To give the State the possibility of easing the increase in production, everyone must work and whoever has money must subscribe to the Loan.
```

The currency-chart scale figures and some sack labels are too small or partly hidden to transcribe with confidence. The hyphenated 'es-sere' and 'all'este-ro' at line ends are joined. Translation is a machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.

[← "Mora Dravca vsahniti" plebiscite postcard no. 9 (The Drava Must Dry Up)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/mora-dravca-vsahniti-plebiscite-postcard-1920/) [Wolność Bolszewicka (Bolshevik Freedom): Polish Army propaganda poster →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/wolnosc-bolszewicka-poland-1920/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [La paz según el Perú – La paz según los chilenos (Peace According to Peru, Peace According to the Chileans)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-paz-segun-el-peru-el-banquillo-1880/) (Jun 12, 1880 · Card stacking)
- [Remember the Maine! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans! (Judge)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/remember-the-maine-starving-cubans-judge-1898/) (May 7, 1898 · Card stacking)
- ["A Sacrifice to Aguinaldo's Ambition" (commercial stereograph, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sacrifice-to-aguinaldos-ambition-1899/) (1899 · Card stacking, Name-calling). Content note: Photograph of two dead Filipino soldiers.
- ["England and the War in South Africa" (Der wahre Jacob, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/war-and-capitalism-der-wahre-jacob-1899/) (Dec 5, 1899 · Card stacking, Scapegoating)
- ["Kill Every One Over Ten" (New York Evening Journal, 1902)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kill-every-one-over-ten-1902/) (May 5, 1902 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Blindfolded Filipino children before a firing squad.