greeks discover the politics of poverty

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/greeks-discover-politics-poverty-1329498412

Ac­cord­ing to Eu­ro­pean main­stream econ­o­mists and politi­cians, the so­lu­tion to the Greek debt cri­sis, and the only op­tion for re­turn­ing the coun­try to a path of progress, is 'fis­cal con­sol­i­da­tion'.

But for the Greek masses, the word ‘aus­ter­ity’ has meant the demise of labor, eco­nomic and human rights and the dis­man­tling of an in­ef­fi­cient yet cru­cial so­cial wel­fare sys­tem.

In a last ditch at­tempt to se­cure an ad­di­tional bailout loan of 130 bil­lion dol­lars from the Troika (a mech­a­nism com­prised of the In­ter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Fund, the Eu­ro­pean Cen­tral Bank and the Eu­ro­pean Com­mis­sion), Greece has ca­pit­u­lated to the aus­ter­ity plan forced upon it by the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity, hop­ing to es­cape bank­ruptcy.

The lat­est phase of the plan in­cluded cut­ting 150,000 pub­lic sec­tor jobs, over­turn­ing ex­ist­ing labor laws, slash­ing pen­sions and re­duc­ing monthly min­i­mum wages by 20 per­cent, from 751 euros to 600 euros.

[Doctor_J]

1. This points out a problem with "globalization"

The Greek citizenry would like help from their own government, but the ones calling the shots are the Troika. When your own government is beholden to an external body, to whom to you protest?

[Demeter]

2. The idea was a "United States of Europe"

without any of the federal safety net. It's like Illinois picking on Florida, calling the shots, enslaving the residents "for their own good".

Without a state-to-state transfer program (call it charity, or call it good business., or maybe even "democracy&quot the Eurozone is doomed to deteriorate into WWIII. And here we thought Europe would never be in flames again.

[bigbrother05]

3. A government operated for the benefit of powerful, monied interests is to blame

The rich and powerful ensured that the central government didn't have sufficient revenues and without the resources to enforce tax collection, their borrowing became unsupportable. Now the ones that truly need help are paying for the luxuries of the rich who will now just hire their own services providers, now at rock bottom prices, when they feel compelled to visit their Greek properties/businesses.

Pretty much the Norquist/Neocon game plan.

[southernyankeebelle]

4. What is happening to the Greek people is very tragic. I don't blame the people. The blame is the

politicians. European countries should have never unitied their money. All these countries lose to the one country they didn't want to lose to and that was Germany.