This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
One Furious Greek Sums It All Up: "My Country & Its People Are Falling Apart"
Submitted by KeepTalkingGreece,
I am speechless. Not since yesterday or last week. I have been speechless since July 13th when the Greek left-wing coalition government agreed to burden the country and the people with a new loan, the third bailout for Greece since 2010 together with the strictest austerity program ever. I have been speechless ever since and for more than a week I thought I cannot blog anymore. I took me time to swallow and absorb the shock. And still. I am unable to deal with it.
I am unable to comprehend how a left-wing government ended up signing the worst austerity program ever. For the simple reason that if a left-wing government signs such an agreement, what should I expect from a right-wing or a neo-liberal government to do? Raid my apartment, steal my kitchen pans, my pottery cats collection and my underwear? When the left-wing government signs such an agreement, we can say that the political system in Greece is over. And there is no alternative.
First, we blamed the creditors for wanting to crack down SYRIZA in order to avoid creating other examples of the same kind within the eurozone. Then we blamed again the creditors and specifically German finance minister Schaeuble and his Grexit plan: 5 years bailouts, 5 years temporary Grexit, before Greece could return to the markets. That was original tone by Schaeuble in 2011. Then we blamed the disagreement between the IMF and Germany in terms of “Greek debt relief”. And finally we blamed the ‘dilettantism of the Greek government” that sent to Eurogroup its economic team to explain to Greece’s creditors, how the Eurozone should be changed. It took Varoufakis & Co two months to understand that creditors are not in the mood to listen to some economic theories and revolutionary manifestos but that they simply wanted their money back. All our blames were right and wrong at the same time because the game was f;ixed’ form the very beginning.
When the Greek team started to work on its proposals, it was too late. Schaeuble was determined to kick Greece out of the euro and furthermore to ‘help it’ bridge the Grexit time with a loan of some 50 billion euros. Either way, with or without euro, with or without drachma, with or without Schaeuble or SYRIZA, the result is the same: a third bailout of 50-84 billion euro and another bailout program. There is no hope for this country, for the people – at least, for some of them.
I really don’t care,if Varoufakis wears tasteless shirts and why he wanted to ‘hack’ taxpayers’ numbers while sitting with his team of skilled hackers and childhood friends. Varoufakis is not my cup of tea. He never was. But while our Greek life is falling apart day by day, I have to read Varoufakis’ interview Nr 2034 explaining his game theory and his academic hypothesis, hi smother’s story and his cousins pain. Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a dam. Frankly, my dear, I’m fed up.
I am also fed up listening to opposition lawmakers complaining about the Parliament Speaker and claiming “Zoi Konstantopoulou is torturing MPs with her pedantism.” I honestly don’t give a dam. Frankly, my dear, I’m fed up to see ‘tortured’ MPs earning €5,000+ per month and enjoy tax-free, while the rest of us is literally bleeding: financially, psychologically, physically and morally.
Neither do I care whether SYRIZA is falling apart, whether the Prime Minister wants early elections in September in order to secure a clear majority in Parliament so that he can pass the austerity bills that lead to nowhere.
I am deaf to government ministers and party officials and opposition lawmakers debating on whether Varoufakis should be indict for high or for low treason.
I just don’t care. It doesn’t affect my life, not even a tiny little bit. I give neither a a whole dam nor half of it for this so-called Greek political agenda after July 13th.
What do I care about is to watch my country and the people falling into pieces. I see our Greek lives suffering another ‘internal devaluation’ minute by minute, day by day, week by week. When the 3. bailout deal will be sealed by 15 or 20 August I will be also able to say “I see our Greek lives suffering another ‘internal devaluation’ minute by minute, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year.”
The 40% internal devaluation settled in Greece since 2010, experiences a new peak even though the 3rd bailout has not been signed yet. The Capital Controls imposed on June 29th in order to save the banks from draining, have ruined the lives of many Greeks. Friends of mine who have been working for more than two decades in private companies, were “sent to enforced holiday” together with the banks: their full time job turned into 1 or maximum 2 days work per week. That is 4 or 8 work days per month. In relation, their also salary plunged by end of July. Many employees in the private sector saw their working hours and already low salaries been reduced. How can these people get along without income? Nobody cares and nobody talks about. Neither national nor international media talk about it. We whisper these hazardous circumstances among ourselves. In quiet. Because we are ashamed. And we wonder endlessly.
Others, plagued by long term unemployment and no perspective to get a job or even a pension, felt obliged to sell their home. That’s not possible under capital controls. The selling amount will remain in the bank and it may even fall victim to “deposits haircut” by the end of the year. Another friend who needs to sell her second flat – an inheritance – so that she has money to live, cannot sell it either. Ten years ago, the flat was worth 130,000 euro. Now, if she finds a buyer she will have to sell it for 45,000-50,000 euro. She is trying to sell it for the last 1.5 year. Not a single buyer came around the corner.
With the new Value Added Tax hikes, the amount we need to spend for our weekly basic groceries now extra 15-20 euro. “Just 15 euro?” one may ask. Yes. That’s a huge amount, if you don’t have it and you have kids to feed and bills to pay. The 50-euro banknote that will go for groceries will be missed at the end of the month. Bills will remain unpaid, the extra for a health emergency, for example, will simply be not there. It’s either eat or die.
In hospitals and public health care the situation is going from worse to worst. Shortage of doctors, of nurses, of administration personnel, of material. You need a portion of fluid iron? Average waiting time is 3 days. The same for special creams, for this and that. You need some cotton? “Oh, not so much, please, a tiny piece,” the nurse tells you politely. Sometimes, the drugs or creams never come, you get the prescription upon exiting the hospital.
In the night shift a single nurse is in charge for 40-50 patients, even in the public hospital they proudly call “the biggest in Greece, in the whole Balkans, indeed.” Neither this nor the previous governments managed to raise the working hours of civil servants.
Patients that need night care need to hire a private nurse. They charge €8.5 per hour, €55 for six and a half hours, and one nice green 100-euro banknote on Saturdays. Union rights as before the crisis. Is this the competitiveness the Troika has been talking about? They work at fixed shifts and by the clock: 11:00 pm to 5:40 am, for example. A 24-hours care will cost you more than 200 euro, the overtime they charge is without receipt. One day, the doctor sends you home, half fixed, half broken and totally broke. Then you will need to consult another doctor and get skilled caretakers at home, all paid by your own pocket. Or lay down and die.
A pair of low-pensioners next door with a bed-ridden and dementia-sick wife have been going in and out the hospitals for the last 5 months. The woman needs 24/7 care but they cannot afford neither a caretaker or even better a care home for the elderly. Their last savings were spent on private nurses when the woman was hospitalized. The man was in shock and awe when he heard that they both will have 20-euro less because of the rises in health care contributions. The man was in such a shock that he forgot to go pick up their pensions on Friday. And on Monday.
And then I read about the Financial Crimes Units (SDOE) that have caught in flagranti tourism businesses with fake cash registers in Mykonos and Santorini. Cash registers that have not been registered to the tax office. The customer gets his receipt, but the businessman pockets the money without giving the state the V.A.T. or taxes. The Finance Ministry got alarmed from this new phenomenon of tax evasion by the evergreen smart “Greeks”. But “personnel shortage” hinders a raid to all fake cash registers… One of the fake cash registers was located in Mykonos, two in Santorini, two of the richest islands of Greece. In fact: in the richest regions of the debt-ridden country with impoverished families and ruined economy.
And then, I get this damned feeling that I live on another planet in a far away universe. And I want to stay there forever. In a bubble. Away from this Greece, where half of its population starves and is in dire need and the other half, the ‘clever Greeks’ keep cheating and evading taxes and enjoy a real life of fake registration and exorbitant per hour charge, away from austerity agreements, Troika’s demands and the hateful “Mnimonia” (memoranda) as they take advantage of the shortages of the public system.
- 34798 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -


It fell apart many years ago when you hired the Vampire Squid to fudge your numbers. You paid very generously for that - on the order of $500 million. Now your debt is over $350 billion or over $65,000 per taxpayer. And a GDP that has fallen 30% recently
Goldman Sachs helped the Greek government to mask the true extent of its deficit with the help of a derivatives deal that legally circumvented the EU Maastricht deficit rules
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/greek-debt-crisis-how-goldman...
Sizzling greece makes good scrambled eggs... just what the international usurers had in mind all the time. Greater gourmet meals lie ahead for them when the larger slave states fall.
Watch, listen, and learn.
All is not lost - the Greek rescue package outlines a comprehensive plan to repay the debt and restore the Greek economy to its once prosperous state. I have confidence in this plan, and I believe the Greek people have the tenacity to execute it.The only thing I would add is that we shouldn't exclude Greece from the nominations for future international sports events. The Athens olympic games gave the Greek economy a much needed boost, and demonstrated the power of government spending to restore economic growth. I believe this whole debacle would have come undone much earlier without the Greek olympic games.
So we can assume you haven't seen the photos of the crumbling once former Olympic stadiums over in Greece?
But feel free to send over some of your million there hot shot..
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2014/aug/13/abandoned-athens-ol...
this while China can't wait to get another Olympics. and it's already agreed
And this furious American (especially after the planned parenthood vote yesterday) says "My country and it's people are falling apart."
Greeks are no-good bums:
The Greeks have been "zionized" and White America's turn is rapidly approaching.
The author thinks that "paying taxes" is the answer.... If more people just paid their damn taxes none of this would have happened.
That, my Greek friend, is why your misery will continue. As long as you think giving your money to others and hoping that you will receive something of equal value in return, you will continue to suffer.
I'd say he nailed it.
You are probably a lying bitch Albanian! Greece was invaded by Italy dickhead, not Germany. Get the fuck off this site with your lying ass!
Do not lump all the Greeks together, especially with 'their' government. I certainly do not want to take credit for everything the American governemnt has committed. Hopefully, we do not pay back our creditors. We borrowed the money through an illegal money laundering instution known as the Federal Reserve.
Haven't the Greeks been on the decline since Alexander the Great died? This is not a new development. Soon they will have nowhere to go but up thus repeating the cycle of civilization - rise and fall and rise again. Flux to reflux ad infinitum.
Indeed, MDB, the best solution to the Greek crisis would be to move the summer olympics to Athens and keep the games there for as long as it takes to pay off the debts of Greece and rebuild its economy.
For the benefit of Greece, Europe, and indeed, humanity, we look to Berlin and Brussels to get the ball rolling on this project. Make it so.
lol. good one. nevertheless, methinks you overstate a bit the power of both Berlin and Brussels (or how deep Beijing's and other capitals' pockets are, for example)
"The Greek people are anarchic and difficult to tame.
For this reason we must strike deep into their cultural roots. Perhaps then we can force them to conform.
I mean of course, to strike at their language, their religion, their cultural and historical reserves, so that we can neutralize their ability to develop, to distinguish themselves, or to prevail; thereby removing them as an obstacle to our strategically vital plans in the Balkans, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East."
- Henry Kissinger
In Greek: http://sarantakos.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/kisinger1/
Translated into English: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=el&u=http://sarantakos.wo...
Mr. Sarantakos explains here that the quote in question first appeared in Greece in 1987 in a newspaper editorial written by some nationalist lawyer, and it then got a wider audience in 1997 in a monthly magazine that is published by Liana Kanneli, journalist and later Communist Party MP. When asked for proof of the quote, Kanelli said she got it from "Turkish Daily News", but couldn't provide proof because the issue had supposedly disappeared, both the print and electronic versions. Then supposedly, another journalist found the Turkish Daily News issue in question, and there was no such quote. This journalist then supposedly contacted Kissinger, who replied with the following (there's a photo of this letter at Sarantakos' site):
Quote
Dear Mr Marinos
Thank you for your letter. As to the quote, there was no award ceremony, there was no speech and the alleged quote is entirely untrue. The whole thing is pure invention, and I expect you to correct it.
Since you are the first to tell me where the quote came from, I have only today had the opportunity to correct it in the Turkish Daily News and I have done so.
Sincerely yours,
Henry A. Kissinger
So, I doubt the Kissinger quote is real, but who knows really. If the proof exists, it's nowhere to be found.
Government spending to increase growth. Yep, the borrowed money hit the veins and it felt good until THEY HAD TO PAY IT BACK YOU IDIOT.
damn that was well phrased sebastion.
So sue Goldman at the Hague for whatever you can get. Make it class-action and get all your national friends to go in with you. Maybe you could sue the whole industry for fraud in conveyance and misprison of felony or however the "black letter law" names these obvious crimes.
Or not.
Whatever...
Buy food, water, and weapons.
But first, trim those fucking eyebrows.
"I am unable to comprehend how a left-wing government ended up signing the worst austerity program ever. For the simple reason that if a left-wing government signs such an agreement, what should I expect from a right-wing or a neo-liberal government to do? Raid my apartment, steal my kitchen pans, my pottery cats collection and my underwear?
There's you problem right there you stupid fuck, you believe that one particular form of government is different than the other. All government is out to lie cheat and steal in order to gain as much wealth an power for themselves as they can. They don't give a shit about you. None of them give a rat's ass about you.
I like to think that wasnt always the case. Talk to older folks and they used to trust the goverment. Were they straight up wrong? Or was it corporatocracy that overcame democracy sometime in the last decade?
I dont like the idea of "All government is out to destroy" Because that to me means we accept that democracy is impossible. And I really want to believe its possible.
"Talk to older folks and they used to trust the goverment". let me guess: American?
They were straight up wrong. Look where that naive trust got us... You want to blame the greedy corporations, but who opened the door for them?
Please, look at how government has always screwed over the public, from the federal reserve act passed under the cover of darkness to false flag wars to enrich the bankers and the MIC..gov has bought of the golden hordes by throwing them trinkets like SNAP while they helped the oligarchs steal the wealth of the nation. The major game changer now versusprevious generations is that the internet has helped to shed some light on just how corrupt the bastards are.
Without the Federal Reserve- Congress would have to authorize every budget and every spending measure annually through the citizens of the U.S Can you imagine that? How long would they last? They wouldn't make a second election cycle.
Politicians desperately need a central bank. That way they can spend far more than they receive without getting oversight or approval from their citizens because we would have voted them all out long ago.
Central banking represents an unlimited line of credit wherein the politicians can destroy our country with debt while lining their own pockets at the same time. Central bankers love it because they and their secret stock holders become wealthy beyond measure while the taxpaying slaves send in their 1040's.
Not all government is out to destroy, it is corrupt individuals within the government who are. Government kept in check is fine but if corruption is allowed in it is grown to unsustainable levels and requires tyranny to remain in power. We are at stage 3 tyranny. Most of the rest of the world is at stage 4. The end of this will come, there will be a reset, and it won't be pretty. Who will survive and control what is left?
Government: to govern = to control. Ment = short for mental, or mind.
Therefore, government = mind control.
I no longer consent to this bullshit. *All* governments are tyranny incarnate. Do we really need them any more? There's got to be a better way.
I profoundly disagree. there are varying levels of madness and idiocy, among governments, political parties and ideological methods
take this Greek's rant about the current capital controls, and their idiotic effects on something so simple like selling a flat (never mind what is happening with the stock exchange)
Vary they may, but you're just making a cleanest dirty shirt argument... and the degree of insanity is also directly related to available choices (if all of them are bad, then guess what)... We live at a time of convergence for many incredibly important factors, leading to increasingly difficult decisions.
sure, you can see it so. but if you walk shirtless and even achieve a territory that is shirtless... you'll be occupied by shirt-carriers
so I don't see an option in getting rid of shirts, and so I care for the cleanliness of shirts. there is dirt, and there is... washing and cleaning
You disagreed with Dr. E, but your points are not mutually exclusive... In fact, I think you may be in agreement.
MachoMan, yes... and no. I think Dr. E. is under the spell of "only in America", there
His gov is shitty, ergo all gov is similarly or more shitty, ergo gov is the problem, period
yes, gov is a problem, but there is no solution to it, only moderation, mitigation and management of it. <- this is where we differ, I think
the difference between "fix it" and "manage it". the first is "fire and forget", the second is like homework
Saying that there's no solution to it is a bit pessimistic, but I agree that humans haven't found it. Even the most staunch "capitalist" has to acknowledge that some referee is necessary to keep the peace among competitors and that the market has some inherent limitations.
As far as management goes, humans' natural states are apathy and laziness. As a result, there is no management over the long run. The maintenance cost of any society is greater than humans choose to accept. Ergo, all societies fail.
The problem with attempting to differentiate between dirty shirts at this juncture is that the governance of countries with any semblance of wealth is difficult at best, given those countries are left with nothing but bad choices. Even those who adopt some acceptable notebook of solutions, still will appear insane because they're left with insane choices. So, I'm not sure bickering over form is going to get us to the substance of the matter. An ounce of prevention...
My good doctor. Politcians are merely puppets. They whore out the taxpayers by spending far more than they have received. In turn, the bankers extend them an unlimited credit line so they can hang themselves with it. Right now the lynching is Greece- but it's coming to a stage near you.
We all share one common denominator. Central bankers. The cocksuckers are like roaches and until we start getting rid of them- permanently- they will just keep coming back, dressed in nice suits using nice verbage, while slitting all of our throats.
You won't find any argument from me there. I get irritated as hell because people don't understand this fact and they are stupid enough to believe they really have a choice.
True. Central banking and fiat currencies trump all avenues of blame. These are the fuckers we should be ferreting out and eliminating. Guys like Tsipras don't have the balls to stand up to them. Shrimp balls. Pussies, all of them.
okay I dont disagree with all of you.
So what now? We are ruled by central banks and puppet politicians. So game over? Riot in the streets? What is the solution here. Because protests over climate change, blacklivesmatter, occupy all were met by critique from the media- "lazy, destroying their own communities, no job". They were met with militarized police, FBI surveillance, government curfew, national guard deployment.
So what to do now?
B9K9 took the opposite approach... if bankers did not exist, then the government would have to create them. I tend to agree. In short, your cause and effect are backwards, government holds the power, not the other way around.
In so far as "what to do now," I would be weary of the strong man.
Macho- Not to offend, but I think you have it exactly backwards.
Then again, so did Napoleon;
"When a Government, Bonaparte declared, is dependent for money upon bankers, they and not the leaders of that Government control the situation, since “the hand that gives is above the hand that takes”. “Money,” he declared, “has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency: their sole object is gain.”
Please don't preface posts with "not to offend." It's the internet... and, frankly, everyone should expect to have to defend their ideas on the battlefield of logic.
Powerful individuals, those people can lose everything in an instant when a government demands it. Financiers are merely a convenience and they take a fee for that convenience. So long as the public stewards are busy spending other peoples' money, there isn't much issue. However, human existence is cyclical and fairly predictable over long ranges of time. Eventually, that view changes, the roles change, the mandates change, public sentiment changes, people become more vigilant and aware, etc. To that end, in our waxing and waning lives, where do you think we are in the cycle? Towards the end where governments continue to spend with reckless abandon, rapidly expand their powers, and line the financiers' coffers, or the opposite?
If nothing else, who has the power to create the banking system also has the power to destroy it. He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing. I think many people are simply confusing the decision not to act with the inability to act. Time will tell, it always does.
To that end... I'd say it takes two to tango. Niether the pols nor the banksters could exist outside their cozy, symbiotic relationship.
However, the bankster still has the upper hand because it is his $$$ that enable the pol to promise the people shit that neither he/she nor they can afford (hence the national debt). Further, the bankster can deal with any pol on a one-on-one basis, while the honest pol (oxymoron, I know) must single-handedly wrestle all of the heads of the bankster hydra at once. To my knowledge, Andrew Jackson is the only one to ever pull off this super-human feat; And we just don't make 'em like him anymore.
I don't expect you'll agree, but that is the basis of my contention.
Otherwise, thanks for your response. Just so you know, since this was my first response (afaik) to you, I was being oh so kind. Some folks 'round here can tell you that this isn't always the case.
Carry on, it's a relatively minor quibble, anyway.
In broad terms you have political solutions and non-political solutions. The Greeks tried but failed with political solutions, they got suckered and voted for someone who was just telling them what they wanted to hear to win the election.
It might still be possible to have a political solution, they came close. They just need to elect someone who wants to denounce the debt and leave the Euro. That won't fix everything, but it will make everything a lot more clear.
Non political solutions are rarely effective. You could start a Civil War, but you stand a good chance of having a military junta end up in charge, which is arguably worse than the ccurrent system. Of course you might get lucky and get a intelligent military junta, but odds are against it.
We have all the same problems here, and the same depressing unlikely to work solutions.
They voted with the communist leader even after they know he was lying and scam the entire country to be taking apart. They deserve what's coming to them. Bend over and suck it up dummies.
They voted to maintain ties with europe despite telling other member states to suck a fat one on their loans... I contend that they actually did not vote for anything. They got mad and took to the streets and hit the polls, but they remain in denial regarding their condition. As has been the case since 2007, any deleveraging will be involuntary.
exactly.
Greece is the template for the rest of the world! Same will happen across all countries! Because every one of them (except China) is bankrupt and loaded with debt, ready to implode!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-03/breaking-down-chinas-23-trillio...
This data is not accurately suggesting that China is buying productive assets (with reasonable debt) and has a population of 1.45 billion unlike ANY other nation.
Secondly, the debt is much worse in Japan or US....and in most EU countries.
This is a non partisan look at the debt of rest of the world. We must always compare to where China is today versus 10 years ago and same for other large nations like US, India, EU etc.
Someone below also asked collective debt with comparison that includes households, Govt and corporate debt.
http://jubileedebt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/The-new-debt-trap_0...
Chinese margin debt has declined 40% approx from its peak around mid June. That is an achievement.
This is a great comparison.
http://www.chinastockresearch.com/ryans-blog/item/996-updated-chart-marg...
People on facebook told me that the greek people are just greedy and dont want to pay for what they spent. Americans are responsible and would never do that.
And that shit is coming to America?!?!?
a time-bomb that has 1 sec till implosion, kept alive by tinkering on the circuit boards by the troika
Keep the people on the ferris wheel and the park is open 24/7 365 days a year!
The use of an unregistered cash register is not knew or peculiar to Greece. Even in Sydney airport some years ago an enterprising employee in the newsagency would pull out another cash register at certain times and pocket the proceeds. Some hundreds of thousands of dollars later they realised what was happening.
And I implore all of you to examine the cost of corruption in Germany. It is estimated at somewhere between 100 and 250 billion euros per year. So much for German systems.
The Greek fellow who wrote this piece is a little silent on what HE did for the last 10 years and how he contributed to the current mess.
George Carlin. It's a big club and you ain't in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBZDSSky0
We all have the same problem pal. We are all owned by the central bankers. They own your place and they own ours. We are all going to suffer the same fate. Unfortunately, you go first.
Greece needs to deploy their special forces to Manhattan and rendition the execs of GS. Water board them with uzo and flaming cheese then hang their corpses over government buildings. THEN I will start taking the Greek people seriously.
when I started to read your comment I first thought you were talking about the Congressional Hellenic Israeli Alliance
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/04/us-gold-southkorea-idUSKCN0Q90D120150804
"I just don’t care. It doesn’t affect my life, not even a tiny little bit. I give neither a a whole dam nor half of it for this so-called Greek political agenda after July 13th."
anytime anyone passes laws or rules governing your behavior or more importantly your wallet, yes it does matter, a lot. You not caring is how you and your people got hoodwinked into joining the EU in the first place.
Politics turn into policy.
Who the hell is stupid enough to think a leftist government is of any help or even able to tell the truth??!! Well maybe the dbagger letthemeatrand
just so people understand comments in the article like:
Means that the person is being paid under the counter. In this case the union nurses refuse to work the time period unless a bribe is given to them.
Golden Dawn
Dear Mr Outraged:
Please, what did the Greek people do with all the fiat money that you borrowed?
Did you invest it wisely?
I don't think so.
I think that you pissed it away and all you have left is the bill.
Socialism has consequences.
Fu.k you sh.t head!
(if you are from the US)
What did YOU do with the 16 Trillion that the Fed/Gov printed/spent in our name?
What are you talking about?
And you got 5 upvotes for that? Anyone who has looked beyond the surface rhetoric knows damned well that the Greek people received very little of that money. The overwhelming bulk went back to European banks, to pay THEMSELVES. The money is in fact being LAUNDERED through Greek banks to make the bailout by European taxpayers LOOK like aid to deadbeat Greeks. That this continues to be called "socialism" is proof of the failure of our education system.
But the truth wouldn't play well at home, especially in Germany. It's easier to use your taxpayers money under the table, and direct their ire at someone else.
Follow the money before you call an entire nation of people shitheads and tell them to fuck off...
As for "socialism", you really ought to learn what words mean before throwing them around so freely.
Speechless that you can't pay your bills? You should be pissed at your government for spending so much.
Right wing or left wing doesn't matter, you can't fix broke.
Have they tried killing some Germans? Worked wonders for pulling the US out of the Great Depression.
Dearest Greek Guy:
Your country and your people started falling apart way back when you wenty full-tilt socialism. After decades of opportunity to reject socialism and the impending oh-so-obvious socialism induced implosion you get upset? This is how upset you should have been when your country first dipped its toe into it.
I guess the monetary heroin of ever-present government assistance and support bought of your understanding of reality - like its doing in so many other parts of the world.
The bailouts were never intended to go to the people of Greece, not even Greece as a nation. They are always going directly back to the banks
Varoufakis was right about this Troika garrot ...and Lady Lagarde, totally disproved in her earlier hard talk by subsequent events and the IMF's own internal staff's rebellion, needs to end up on Mme Defarge's famous knitting as one to head for "la grande faucheuse".
Now Germany has to choose between seeing Athens burn or the Euro churn down the shute.
"Fais ce que tu voudras de moi Nicolas" has a bitter taste today.
She has been the she-camel of US OLigarchy after having been the she-camel of French Sarko shenanigans.
Once a camel always two humped and overpumped on Reserve's weimar status.
She and Yellen the two muses of Obama's pursual of US oligarchy's financial abuses.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/varoufakis-vindicated-while-lagarde-eme...
I don't picture her as a camel...
"From the corner where she had deposited her egg sac, Lagarde caught the movements of Greece as it sniffed around the bait she had placed earlier.
Stealthily unfolding several of her long thin legs, she began to make her way down the wall, mandibles clicking excitedly..."
This guy has the same problem there as people everywhere do...his country is run by thieves and liars. His cry is heard everywhere on the planet.
But Greece has a Euro problem...that currency lures the selfish, the short-sighted, it makes promises it can never keep, promises of prosperity and security.
They have neither, and nothing is on the horizon. The Euro's promises will always be for some vague future time, IF you do this, IF you do that. But TODAY you will always be poor, always unsure in your finances.
Because the Euro is NOT a currency.
It is more like using the casino's chips. They are worthless everywhere but the casino. And to use them at all, you must risk everything. But take a moment to check out the casino's other customers...How many of them look happy when they leave? How many are leaving with less than they had when they walked in? Like all casino's, there are a few winners, most end up losing.
Go back to the Drachma. All countries ought to be using their own currencies, the ones that fit their economies. The Euro may be cut of richer cloth than the lowly little Drachma, but an ill-fitting suit of luxurious fabric ends up looking far more ridiculous than a properly-fitting plaid shirt and jeans.
Greece, you are a 'plaid shirt and jeans' economy trying to network at a black tie dinner at the Yacht Club. You'll never fit in...
And you should be happy about that. Because those affairs are stilted, stuffy, and about as much fun as an Easter Mass. So pour that punch into a houseplant, rinse your hands off in the fingerbowl, give Merkel a big sloppy kiss, and come join the regular folks...they're down at the beach having a clambake/barbecue. No dress code. Bring some beer.
The Greeks who are still under the Euro-spell are going to be the biggest impediments to Greece's revival.
"Because the Euro is NOT a currency". there is a difference between money and currency, yes. perhaps you forgot that difference, or miswrote?
meanwhile, please explain how a strongly depreciating currency helps people. let me guess: so that they have to pay higher rates, for example?
Whatever a country uses as a medium of exchange, it has to be customized to THAT economy. Having a 'rich' or 'weak' currency has its positives, and negatives...how they manifest will depend on that economy's strengths and weaknesses.
At the beginning, a Drachma WOULD tank against the Euro, as it MUST since the Euro is a 'richer' currency. There would be a period of instability as the currencies balance against each other, and some people would lose out. But it's a process that must play out, there IS no painless way to transition. The Euro makes false promises to a nation like Greece, and there's always upset when promises are not kept. Price-discovery can be traumatic.
But to try and avoid that by perpetuating the lie is no answer.
If you want these folks to learn how to live within their means, they've got to know the TRUE values of things, including their currency.
If you insist on having them ride on your sled instead of building their own, then stop bitching about how heavy they are.
Greeks are now EU slaves. Full stop.
give me evidence for that. let me guess: the debt they are not paying back? sloppy of them, I'd say
I am unable to comprehend how a left-wing government ended up signing the worst austerity program ever. For the simple reason that if a left-wing government signs such an agreement, what should I expect from a right-wing or a neo-liberal government to do? Raid my apartment, steal my kitchen pans, my pottery cats collection and my underwear? When the left-wing government signs such an agreement, we can say that the political system in Greece is over. And there is no alternative.
I STOPPED READING THIS DECEITFUL ARTICLE RIGHT HERE. IT IS AN OPINION PIECE IN SUPPORT OF SYRIZA and the status quo of peaceful death and immigration.
there are only 2 choices, a call for revolution, or ignoring the destruction of the country and support of the status quo.
now you can vote golden dawn.
Hell - enic Republic
Sounds like he has a "greece fire" in the frying pan and is trying to figure out what to do....
Greece has a large, powerful army (by Euro standards).
Maybe they should pull a Hitler on somebody. They owe Italy for both Rome and Mussolini and they already kicked the Italian army's ass once in the last 100 years so there's not a big risk of failure.
At least they could share the love they are currently feeling towards their fellow man.
Oh you best fuckin believe this guy, like a Huge majority of his countrymen, is staunchly pro-Euro. Beats having to actually produce ... anything... to trade for dollars to access the oil markets (just ask any American!).
But far more entertaining than this fool's choosey beggar sob story is the absolute refusal of commenters, as ever, to comprehend Greece's real problem.
"our Greek life is falling apart day by day"
http://mazamascience.com/OilExport/output_en/Exports_BP_2015_oil_bbl_GR_...
I just cannot possibly imagine why!
These poor people. Their government fucked them, Europe fucked them, and they probably fear NATO bombs or a us backed coup/junta if they try to get closer with the BRICs.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs escapes with ill gotten gains that harmed a lot of people once again.
GS ought to be broken up along with BoA, Citi, and a few others.
But but but Athens has light rail! How can the socialist Utopia fail when it has such "infrastructure"?
Varoufakis is not my cup of tea.
Well there you have it. Even afterwards you are ignoring/downplaying the only person who was willing to plan for the worst case and have a Plan X for it.
I'm not putting him on a pedestal just for that, but among the blind the one-eyed...
Greeks need to rise up, destroy their government, and start over. This will involve leaving EU/NATO and getting weapons from Russia and/or China. As it is, Greeks appear to be cowards, bending over for the bankers and oligarchs. Tspiras should be hanged like Mussolini.
What part of 'you made your bed and now you have to sleep in it' don't you understand, Greekospapapolos?
NOTE: You should have thought of that before you decided not to pay your taxes you parasite indigent bankrupt.
get back to us when the banksters are lying in the beds made for them
they'll just be slightly underground, if the world see any justice whatsoever
Actually just got back from visits to both Santorini and Mykonos on which tills are chinging the tourist cash away very nicely, and guess what - you're right that not a cent will be dispatched to Athens .
Unfair on Schauble, he actually encouraged you guys to grexit back to Drachma, and also Yanis, who had no part in this latest capitulation.
Russia and China would have helped out, Schauble would have smoothed the way for the drachma, but Syriza didn't have the balls.
I found the Gone With The Wind reference about one third the way into the article particularly apropos. In fact there may be an entire meme buried in there somewhere for someone with the skills (like WB7) to exploit.
I'm guessing that the left versus right paradigm in Greece is slightly different from L versus R in America, right?
Then again, in America, if the Trumpster doesn't work out, when TPTB make the SHTF in America in 0 to 4 years, my guess is that you'll see Americans with their 100 million GUNS taking to the streets. And so goes the difference between a gunless failed state versus a nation full of guns.
$0.02
A Lannister Always Pays His Debts.
Translation: Time to go to war.
Only one solution for Greece: repudiate the debt, shut down the government (for real), end all taxation and let the market work. Unfortunately they are still trapped in the socialist mindset that got them where they are today.
Those who are operating the "fake" cash registers and avoiding taxes are the real heroes of the Greek crisis. When the majority of Greeks realize this they will be on their way to recovery, but I doubt it will be anytime soon.
Into the streets, Greeks. It's time for a revolution. Out with the Banksters! Out with the lying, traitorous politicians. Out with the Euro. Bring back the Drachma or use the Ruble or something else. It's time to raise a collective middle finger to the Banksters in Brussels.
The fact that you are angry at the ones trying to 'cheat' the system that is robbing them at gunpoint of the money they earn, and that it is unthinkable to you that a far left government signed the deal is why the Greek people are suffering and will suffer even more. You still worship the State and it's delusions even though it is the poison, not the cure. Eventually your country will cease to exist or it will be taken over by a group like Golden Dawn. If you are representative of how brainwashed the Greek populace is in it's pro-State worship then it will be the latter.
My dream is that Europe collapses and we see a flood of immigrants from there like in the early 20th century. I am so sick of all our immigrants being mexicans, chinese and indians. These are garbage races turning our country into dump.
Have they checked for socialism?
Could be a case of that.
Once you get the socialism it can be nearly impossible to eradicate with out powerful medicine. Ususally it is chronic and it does not kill you but you never get rid of it. You die with it.
...oh...it can spread...the ignorant actually get it on purpose...free stuff is the vector...
The only way out of this trap is OUT, my friend. If you're going to watch the country collapse into ruins anyway, at least demand that your government declare real independence from Schaeuble and his debt-as-vengeance mentality. GREXIT. Now. And tell them to nationalize the banks. In fact, you'll need to completely nationalize the economy, remove private profit from the position of controlling or manipulating currency and outlaw secondary market speculation.
Oh, and give the vulture funds and debt speculators the digitus impudicus. Just say "no". You'll need a government with more balls than Tsipras, but I won't tell you where to find it. I do suggest that you look outside of Athens. Athens never bred warriors.
A sivilized euroPeon is a dead euroPeon.
Lesson for greeks and all other "proletariat mobocracies" =
Socialism is socio-economic CANCER - it WILL inevitably kill everything productive
The ONLY solution is to
ERADICATE ALL socialists & collectivists
END ALL income taxes
END ALL entitlement vote-buying programs
Force EVERYONE to live on ONLY what they earn.