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Sign Of The Times: 900 "Rich" Greeks Try To Steal EUR500 "Social Dividend" From The Poor
Thanks to the 'generosity' of their European overlords, the Greek government has been allowed to offer its long-suffering people a so-called "social dividend". As KeepTalkingGreece explains, the one time paid allowance between €500 and €1,000 funded with money from the primary surplus of 2013, is designed to be for the poor; but over 900 applicants with assets over €500,000 applied for the handout and several dozen with assets over €2,500,000 had the balls to apply. As he concludes, "can’t help but wonder whether we are indeed a society in such a moral decline."
More than 450,000 people have submitted requests to receive the so-called “social dividend” a one time paid allowance between €500 and €1,000 for the poor, funded with money from the primary surplus of 2013. However, among the really needy, were also several dozens of Greeks with assets and properties worth even €2,500,000.
“900 applicants had assets of more than €500,000 and yet they applied for the social dividend,” Greek media reported on Thursday.
In the exclusive story of daily TA NEA, several examples of the bold Greeks who applied for the allowance were:
- A couple from Evia with real estate worth €2.3 million, family annual €102,000 euros and residence of 230 sq.m.
- A five-member family from Kalithea in Athens, with annual income €110,000, real estate worth €540,000, a car of 3500 cc and €50,000 from deposits interest.
- A family of four from Paleo Faliro in Athens with real estate worth €2.7 million and annual income €90,000.
- Among the other exemplary applicants is a family with a swimming pool, a family with a 10-meter-long boat.
Applications for the social dividend are done electronically, the strict criteria refer to annual income up to 9,000 euro.
According to unverified information, the application is approved or rejected within minutes as the electronic system has immediate access to the taxation date of the applicant.
I could hardly believe my eyes this morning when I read the story. I thought of cases of families with a home of their own and no other income but one salary that can hardly covers the monthly expenses. I thought of families with less than 12,000 euro income and two properties who are unable to sell one of them because nobody buys it. I thought of this elderly woman with land properties in God-knows-where-land and a home of her won who can hardly pay her electricity bill. And yet, according to the deemed income taxation system they are not eligible to apply for the social dividend.
And here come some people with nerve and try to grab a 500-euro allowance from the really poor.
? can’t help but wonder whether we are indeed a society in such a moral decline.
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Ask Bloomberg. He's not even stopping at heaven's gates b/c he's got the place reserved already.
Paid for in cash co-op - penthouse.
It is EVERYONE'S job to take back the ill-gotten gains of government. On the other hand, what the fuck is a social dividend?
This is no different than the likes of Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman, Larry fuckin Fink, John Paulson, David Tepper, Steve Cohen.......
These guys are mega rich yet billions and billions isnt enough for these mothafuckas
Spot another commonality in the names above??? They are all J---s
I was with you up to the Jew-baiting. Really, you should know better. The oligarch class knows no religion and no creed other than the will to power.
Fair enough. I was j-baiting. Heres an up.
i appreciate that honest. i'm a jew..and i get upset that the so called various communities of jews in new york---and those communities are different --secular, reform, orthodox, hassids, syrian, sephardic.
none of them talk about holding these oligarchs to account. sort of a 'don't waste time criticizing your own' mentality.
it irks me, but then, not all jews stay jewish. many of us secular aren't affiliated and on our own person time will speak the truth, but we're not a 'community' .
it takes social action, and social community wider criticism to hold people to account at least at the level of courting private scorn.
but i don't hear too many people of various minorities criticising some of the big wigs who are corrupt and happen to share their faith, or skin color.
that doesn't mena there aren't plenty of independent thinkers.
this guy here doesn't like al sharpton, or his race baiting. but he's not a community either. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sL2f0PoqME
truly there is the world of individuals who think clearly and see truth , and they are a smal but very silent minority generally. and they aren't community leaders.
Thanks. You go a long way towards restoring my battered faith in your community.
"More than 450,000 people have submitted requests to receive the so-called “social dividend” a one time paid allowance between €500 and €1,000 for the poor, funded with money from the primary surplus of 2013. However, among the really needy, were also several dozens of Greeks with assets and properties worth even €2,500,000.
“900 applicants had assets of more than €500,000 and yet they applied for the social dividend,” Greek media reported on Thursday."
In other news....900 applicants for the €500 "social dividend" just revealed to have not paid the €200 "special handling gratuity" when applyng for their "social dividend".
Does anyone stopped to think about Merikans on food stamps while driving Porsches and MB's? Does anyone realize that .gov turns a blind eye to the rules for collecting food stamps? Does anyone know that .gov will pay bird-dog fees to anyone who gets a family to sign up for food stamps?
We get caught on racism, political views and opinionated commentary and we loose sight of the big picture that .gov controls us, manipulates us and divides us and pass laws while we watch the boob tube.
Some of us do deserve this treatment and I would have thought that ZHedgers should be able to see beyond the distraction.
Just revolt. All of us in everyway possible.
I think most ZHers are aware of these facts. But as long as you work and pay taxes, you're supporting the system. The only effective means of resistance, is to go Galt, by dropping your income down below the median, where income taxes are zero for practical purposes. This method of resistance is safe, effective and legal, but I have yet to take this step myself.
Maybe. But there appears to be one hell of a lot of that 'religion' among the oligarch class you refer to. Just sayin'
If someone is legitimately rich because they supplied goods/services to his fellow man, is that person not entitled to the fruits of his labor. Why are others entitled to that man's hard work? Though I do recognize that many of the rich obtain their wealth by less than legitimate means.
How is restricting this payout to just the poorest in society somehow depriving the wealthiest of the 'fruits of their labour'?
The Greek government may want to consider sending in their version of the IRS on those rich families applying for that social dividend.
Finally, a good use for tax collectors?
They are just trying to recoup their stolen wealth. I don't blame them. Charity is not charity at the point of a gun.
Sounds like the Greek IRS leaked the applications, just like our IRS leaked Mitt Romney's tax returns to Harry Reid.
Mybe it's not "society" that is in decline, but the wealthy elite who have lost all moral grounding.
That's kind of what you get when you start saying "greed is good".
Do you not realize, that you are quoting a character from a movie? A character fashioned by the wealthy elite of socialist Hollywood to represent their conservative political enemies? Think for yourself, is all i ask.
Can't help wonder if we are indeed a society in a moral decline?
Well what the fuck finally makes you ask that question dumb ass? Good Lord.... isn't it time for the Kardashians or Honey Boo Boo?
Must....watch....rich bitch housewives.....must watch.....talentless celebs....dance.....moar......
You want talent? How about one of skateboarding's classic video parts.
Jamie Thomas - Welcome to Hell
That last grind...
At least Bush just handed it out to everyone. (Remember that one?)
Ok, sorry, I couldn't help myself. I won't do it again.
Thank you China.
European elections wouldn't have anything to do with this? Right?
In Latin America you can buy off a voter with a 5 dollar T shirt and some burritos. 500 to 1000 euros looks steep.
"can’t help but wonder whether we are indeed a society in such a moral decline."
This statement makes the preposterous, moralizing, totally baseless and unsupported assumption that Greece has or had anywhere to decline from, morally.
I would LOVE to see some historical documentary evidence for Greece or any other place ever having had a period in which the rich weren't exactly as greedy and self-serving as everyone else, only much much more successfully so.
*Crickets chirping*
In Ancient Greece, in times of drought or wars lost, rulers sacrificed their own children to the Gods. They believed themselves to be 100% responsible for their population. And this the only case of accountability on this scale that I know.
Modern Greece is not ancient Greece
"the application is approved or rejected within minutes as the electronic system has immediate access to the taxation date of the applicant."
So let me get this straight... Greece's website to hand out cash WORKS with almost no prep-time or build-out budget, but our website to sell government-approved health insurance DOESN'T after 3+ years of working on it and spending $765MM.
NOW whose society is in decline?
"Question of the Day"
+ 1
This shit makes my blood boil, you could easily just go ahead and string these fuckers up from a lamp post without any remorse.
That is why I suspect a false flag. It's possible we're being played.
The governemnt employees just took theirs..they did not have to sign up....but pretty amazing how they checked their names and addresses of the applicants....here you would not need an ID to get yours
Its a government program, with eligibility criteria as set forth. As long as the applicants didn't lie about their income, then I don't see what the 'theft' is.
Handout continent. Everybody wants some.
It is not fair that only lazy, irresponsible, or even deserving people without jobs get a subsidy not available to other people.
It is not a moral decline to expect handouts be distributed free of moral hazard.
Everyone should get it or no one gets it.
The West has lost all credibility.
All that "democracy" and "freedom" spouted by the U.S. and the E.U. turns out to be the right to have your rights trampled, your saving punished, your deposits confiscated, and already taxed entitlements inflated away or cut in the name of "austerity" which really = free money for banks on the backs of the citizenry.
Is it any wonder that the post WWII dream is dying on the vine while our kleptocrats and oligarchs push us toward a new war?
Not to mention the pointless wars of the U.S. in the past 20 years grinding our young Men and Women into the dust for the sake of the Military Industrial Complex and Wall Street.
The West has lost all HONOUR...period.
Our Oligarchs now CHEAT in the trash cans of society.
Yep. George Carlin said it best: "It's called the American Dream... because you've gotta be asleep to believe it."
At a certain point, people who pull this shit will simply be killed off by their neighbors as a clear and present danger to the community.
The evidence of societal decline is in the existance of a charity program administered by bureaucrats that rich and poor alike "benefit" from.
The author is outraged by 2 people with similar "incomes", receiving an equal handout, which had to be stolen from some truly innocent person in the first place?!?!
How are you blind to the original theft yet outraged by the "theft from the government and the poor"?!? How or why are you ok with one and not the other?!?
The "original theft" is always carried out by the rich. That is why they hold such a disproportionate share of society's wealth.
Put down the Ayn Rand propaganda for a moment and do some actual thinking.
And psst, that lottery ticket that the right-wing sold you? That's actually worthless. Thought you should know.
I'll put down my Ayn Rand, if you will face your own covetousness.
pure anarcho capitalism in the RAW ...
ZH adepts of Ayn Rand you have second cousins in Greece who fleece not the golden but the wretched "trash class"...
Guess who I'm referring to here...
"European Overlords" my BUTT!
Lest we forget, we should recall the KEY issue with Greece...its dead beat billionaires and the rampant TAX EVASION culture held by their oligarchs lead to a perpetual deficit. Sound familiar? It should.
This is no different in any country, it seems. The Wealthiest few become delusional and foster a sense of personal entitlement where they feel that they should not pay taxes. They call themselves "Job Creators" even as they live luxury lifestyles living off their ever growing inherited wealth.
Recall also that while real GDP growth in the Western Democracies has been on the order of 0.5-2.5%, the return on stock market investments has been on the order of 5%. Ponder that for a bit.
And that the Richest among us then take this entitlement to the extreme and try to collect benefits earmarked for the poor and less fortunate is no wonder.
No one should pay taxes. The government can survive by collecting fees for permits on an auction basis. The government can not act as a wealth re-distributor.
In a civilized society, people and churches will take care of the really and truely needy.
The government used to fund itself entirely through import tariffs.
Nothing to wonder about. the corruption is real.
Beware Greeks bearing gifts.
I'm not surprised at all. Typical Greek behaviour. They are sleazy corrupt ne'er do wells. No surprise then that their society is a pile of manure on a good day. As a Dutch mate of mine said Greeks are just Turks trying to be Italians.
I smell false flags. Never take anything like this at face value, when you're dealing with the left. Does anyone doubt, that had Obama announced a similar program in the US, that Mitt Romney and the Koch brothers would turn out to have applied?
The imagination of suffering Greeks everywhere is pretty naive. It's an open secret: The party goes on because the Rich in Greece don't participate in the burden of debt although it's well known that tax evasion is one of the main causes of the Greek misery. Some facts from "FOCUS" (21th of june 2011: http://www.focus.de/finanzen/news/staatsverschuldung/tid-22705/griechenl...)
On paper 6 of 10 Greeks are living in poorness, because according to their tax declaration their annual income is less then 12.000 Euro.
About 70 percent of the freelancers like lawyers and physicians declare incomes lower than 10.500 Euros. The average annual (on paper-)income of Greek investors, landlords and stock speculators is about 6730 Euros. This means that income taxes amount to 900 Euro per year and investor. Only 60 (!) of the 11 million Greeks declared yearly incomes over 900.000 Euro.
Why all the hate against rich people who applied for free shit? I was always told that you should apply for EVERYTHING. Is a job slightly above your skill level? Apply anyway. Does a job say it pays 30k but you would want at least 45k? Apply anyway, negotiate if they offer you the job. University says minimum of 80% average to get in? Apply even if your average is 75%.