“Greece will certainly need a decade to regain its competitiveness”

The German finance minister is quoted as saying. What does he base this on?

The fact the Greek state business will be exposed to competition, that new business will move into industries where the Greek government previously had the monopoly. That sounds great. But does it make Greece as a country more competitive?

I think not. I mean, competitive with who? And it what way? Competitive that Greece will be able to export more products? Of course not.

ekathimerini.com has put a nice spin on Schaeuble’s words but what he really means is that German and other foreign companies will be able to compete with the state monopolies. That sounds great, if you are talking to German industrialists but what about the Greek people?

Going from the liberalisation of the UK energy sector the consumer does not really gain a lot in terms of lower bills. What has happened however is that the UK people no longer own the power stations they used to. They were given to foreign investors or they bought shares in the new power companies. Effectively buying something they already owned.

So going back to the article. Let there be no mistake with regards to what Schaeuble was talking about here. He was talking about Greece becoming a more competitive environment for foreign companies.

He was not talking about Greece as a country from the perspective of a Greek citizen.

Personally I see no reason as to why Greece will become more competitive in comparison to Germany for example and Greek appear to agree with me in massive numbers. The population of Greece is shrinking because people are not having enough children.

If there is any clue to how people regard the future of their country it is how many children they have. If they are optimistic for the future they have have children, if they think things are declining, they will not have children.

In the same article This “Greek reality” hinges to a great extent on the inadequacy of the state, which, among other factors that have rendered life difficult, especially in big cities, has failed to create adequate child-minding services, has allowed formal education to be replaced by education at private institutions, has nurtured a parasitic work ethic and has allowed uncertainty to mar young people’s view of the future. Before I was not so sure but for me I now believe H KAΘHMEPINH is a socialist newspaper. It attributes Greece’s problems to the government not doing enough.

And yet the Greek people vote with their money every day and withold money from the government because they believe that what they get in return is far below what is fair.

It maybe hard for the author to comprehend but maybe the Greeks actually want the state to do less and to cut the taxes that they pay.

But the statement is also contradictory. On the one hand is seems to criticize the government has allowed formal education to be replaced by education at private institutions and at the same time it says the government has nurtured a parasitic work ethic

So which is it? Private industry is a bad thing or governments are parasitic organisations? It is not clear but going from the tone of the article I think the author is calling for more government despite the fact that the Greek government has taken its people into this debt apocalypse and shows no sign of showing some back bone and taking a stand against the international bankers.

And to further highlight that the Greek government is taking it’s country in the opposite direction it should be going it has made it’s number one export industry less competitive

And a brief note on the taxi strike, it is still going strong with the government stance appearing to be softening

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