How The Greek Government Squandered The Bail Out Money

The bail out was orginally given to Greece to allow the PASOK government to reduce the government deficit. That was the purpose of the bailout, nothing more, nothing less. But the money has been squandered, it has simply been used to prolong the political careers of corrupt government

The proof is everywhere you see in Greece. The government deficit is now larger than what it was when the original bail out was given. Why would the Troika grant Greece another bail out when the previous bail out has been used to pay the very people the government is supposed to be firing?

Instead of using the bail out for redundancy payments, the Greek government has used the bail out money to keep paying the public employees they were supposed to be firing.

Instead of using the bail out money to build a solid foundation for the Greek pension system the money has been spent to maintain the unsustainable system that was supposed to be reformed.

Instead of using the bailout to reduce taxes on the private sector to create jobs, the bail out money has been used to pay salaries of people that most of the population believes should be sacked.

It is obvious the Greek government has not and is not learning from it’s mistakes, for the sake of Greeks and for the sake of the children of today’s Greeks I hope the Troika can learn from it’s mistakes and realise the Greek politicians will not carry out the reforms they need to unless they have no option.

The politicial class in Greece is so in bed with the public sector workforce the politicians cannot even bring themselves to fire the employess they have to, instead they are giving them paid leave for a year or 2 on 60% salary and then letting them go. To me it seems the PASOK government do not understand the gravity of the situation they are in.

They are still continuing to pander to the very people they need to be making rendundant. It is almost as if they do not undertstand that if they do not fire vast swathes of the public sector the majority of the government workforce will go without pay, without salary and the pension of people from the private sector will also not be paid.

The consequences could not be more obvious. The patient is hemorraging blood from a gash on the neck but the PASOK government believe their priorty is to make sure the patient’s hair is in order.

Now when the threats are becoming more specific the PASOK government is trying to start sackings now when they should have been carried out 3 years ago. The whole situation is completely pathetic.

The PASOK government carries on like it can manipulate reality if it just tries hard enough. As governments through history have learned, the facts are facts the Greek public sector is larger than the private sector can support.

The Greek government can either reduce taxes and grow the private sector to a large enough size that it can support the public sector or it has to slash the size of the public sector.

The Papandreou government has to do at least one of these 2 things but so far then have done neither and in fact they have done the opposite.

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