Forget what you have been reading in the news, Greece is not suffering because of austerity, Greece is suffering because there is not enough austerity.
Every Greek I have spoken to would absolutely love some austerity in Greece but unfortunately there is none, their cost of living is going through the roof, it is not decreasing.
Let me explain.
The financial problems in Greece are solely down to the government. Greek economic problems have nothing to do with the Greek private sector.
The Greek problem is only due to the government.
The government in Greece is too big and it is too involved in the lives of Greek people through regulations and bureaucracy.
The austerity that is needed in Greece is government austerity. Government is the problem, government is the one that needs to cut back and balance its books. The private sector should not be dragged in.
Video, a professor who agrees with me – http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/JVe
Unfortunately the Greek government does not accept this argument so rather than sorting its own books out the government has forced the private sector to make up the shortfall.
ie the Greek government has forced the Greek people to pay for its mistakes.
Austerity in Greece would be in the form of the Greek government massively cutting it’s workforce, unfortunately this is not happening.
In the face of default, the Greek government still is not doing anywhere near enough to shrink its workforce.
The average Greek in the street that I have contact with would absolutely love some austerity measures, austerity measures involving the government, unfortunately there isn’t any and this is why the Greek people are so angry,
Let me put it another way. If Greece was a business and head office was too big an inefficient, you would think people would be laid off from head office to make things balanced.
Unfortunately this is not what has happened. Instead of the obvious waste at head office being cut out, the workers of the company, the ones that actually produce things, ie the private sector, are being asked to take massive pay cuts in order to subsidise this massive bureaucracy and this is why Greeks are so angry.
Greeks are not angry that the government needs to feel the brunt of the austerity measures, they positively welcome it, unfortunately they see that they are being forced to pour their hard-earned money into this black hole in order to subsidies the very thing that is causing their problems.
The next time you hear in the news that Greek are angry because of the austerity measures remember that this is not correct, Greeks are angry that there is not enough austerity and that the private sector is being forced to subsidise the very thing that has caused the current recession/depression in Greece.
Greeks would absolutely love to see their government shrinking, Greeks by and large would love the number of people employed by the government being slashed, Greeks in general are sick of having to bail out their government.
All Greeks know what is going on.
It is a huge political game at it is the Greek taxpayer that is being forced to pay for the actors and the sets.
This is why Greeks are angry, they can see that the “austerity” measures being implemented by the Greek government are a complete farce, they are the opposite of austerity and do not address the core issue.
Until Greeks see tens of thousands of government workers being laid off and their taxes being reduced, Greeks will continue to be angry.
Expecting taxpayers to pay for the mistakes is enough to aggravate anyone.
The definition of Austerity is to live simply, without luxuries, except in Greece the cost of living for the average Greek has gone through the roof due to the massive increase in taxes.
In fact I will take the title of this article back. Greeks are not living under austerity, they are experiencing the complete opposite. Life is not getting cheaper for Greeks, things are getting massively more expensive.
Austerity for the private sector would mean Greeks are spending less not more.
Make no mistake, the Greek government does not want to relinquish its power over the people so, under the guise of the word austerity, Greeks are seeing their cost of living go through the roof.
To use the word austerity to describe the Greek financial situation is completely false.
Greece is not undergoing “austerity measures”, Greeks are experiencing massive tax increases.
It really is as simple as that.
To use the word austerity is completely misleading, be it misleading intentionally or not, that fact remains, it is not austerity, it is simply huge tax increases.
When the government starts spending massively less money, then it can be called austerity.
When people spend less money, that is austerity. It is not “austerity” when people are spending more money than they did before. Please remember that the next time you see the word austerity be used the describe the Greek recession/depression.
Greek is experiencing the effect of huge tax increases not austerity.
When I see real Greek government austerity, trust me, I will write about it.
I agree with this. Austerity should reach the cost of living. Unfortunately as it is, our wages are being slashed, but the cost of living is getting higher. EU want us to slash wages to be on the same level as Croatia? Fine! OK! Ask any Greek and they would agree – IF THE COST OF LIVING WAS BROUGHT INTO LINE! If they want the average wage to be 250 Euros here, then they cannot expect us to pay 2 euros a litre for unleaded fuel, they can’t expect that a household which has fuel heating to require 4000 Euros each winter to heat the house. They cannot expect that the Greek Supermarkets are amongst the most expensive in Europe. If lower wages meant a lower cost of living, which in turn re-attracted all those tourists who shunned Greece after they joined the Euro in favour of cheaper countries like Turkey – then I am certain you would find the Greeks saying “Nai!”
Hi, thanks for your comment.
I couldn’t have put it better. You have Papademos banging on about competitiveness and lowering wages but they say nothing about reducing the cost of living.
And worse than that, pro-actively increasing the cost of living with taxes that are not connected to income.
Something is seriously wrong with this picture.