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Cutting taxes + lowering the retirement age + increasing benefits + staying in the euro zone = no solution. Something will have to give. Leaving the euro zone is the favourite option in the article. However, too many voters remember the times when Italy could not produce small coins and plastic buttons and candy were used as money, when getting a mortgage was impractical because of crazy interest rates because of high inflation, when a banker was found swinging by the neck from a bridge. Leaving the euro zone would be against the wishes of the voters and politically suicidal. Doing nothing effective on taxes and retirement is far easier. That doesn't mean leaving the euro zone can't happen. Just that it is irrational and not likely to happen.