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
- 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
- Country
- Kingdom of Italy
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Nitti Government
- Leader
- Francesco Saverio Nitti
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Fundraise
- Themes
- Economy and finance, Labor
- Techniques
- Card stacking
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress (World Digital Library collection), 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
[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.
[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.
