Depression Deepens Greek Middle Class Despair With Crime

[Purveyor]

By Oliver Staley - Dec 6, 2012
Anastasia Karagaitanaki, 57, is a former model and cafe owner in Thessaloniki, Greece. After losing her business to the financial crisis, she now sleeps on a daybed next to the refrigerator in her mother’s kitchen and depends on charity for food and insulin for her diabetes.

“I feel like my life has slipped through my hands,” said Karagaitanaki, whose brother also shares the one-bedroom apartment. “I feel like I’m dead.”

For thousands of Greeks like Karagaitanaki, the fabric of middle-class life is unraveling. Teachers, salaries slashed by a third, are stealing electricity. Families in once-stable neighborhoods are afraid to leave their homes because of rising street crime.

Karagaitanaki’s family can’t afford gas to heat their home this winter and will rely on electric blankets in the chilly northern Greek city. They live on the 785 euros ($1,027) a month their mother collects monthly from their late father’s pension. Two years ago, Karagaitanaki sold her jewelry for 3,000 euros, which she gave to her two sons. Her blood sugar is rising because she can’t afford the meat and vegetables her doctor recommends and instead eats rice and beans she gets from the Greek Orthodox Church.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2012-12-06/depression-deepens-greek-middle-class-despair-with-crime-rising.html

[closeupready]

1. They should do an Iceland, which is doing basically fine now.

[ParkieDem]

6. The thing is, they can't.

They don't have their own currency, like Iceland (not to mention there are 10 million people in Greece, compared to 300,000 in Iceland).

Iceland's crisis was partially caused by a prior decline in the value of the Icelandic krona, and it declined even further as part of Iceland's restructuring.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. And the EU is thinking this will end well?

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
- Albert Einstein

[brush]

3. And the repugs are pushing austerity here

Our MSM is so bad here. Thank goodness we progressives have DU and other non-traditional outlets to get international news but the rest of country needs to know what's going on in a country where austerity measures have been imposed. IMO if the rest of country knew this (poverty and sky-rocketing crime) is what was in store with the calls for cuts in the safety net, the repugs shilling for the corporate CEOs and other wealth extractors would be run out of government

[John2]

4. What did

Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan have to do with Greece's problems? Did it really have anything to do with their middle class? Are they messing up more countries' economies? That needs to be investigated.

[Jazzgirl]

5. I believe GS helped the Greek government mis-state their

finances. I will have to find it now. I don't believe they were the only bank to do it but they sure helped hide what was really going on from the banks and the people.