Of all the emergency summits, bailouts and other meetings over the last 2 years, this Sunday could make or break the €uro or perhaps it is just another step on the journey.
In the red corner there is Syriza talking of new deals with Germany and the IMF and collecting taxes from Greeks businesses (!) and in the blue corner we have the other mob who have been part of the government for the last x years.... maybe they know their way about or are they part of the problem?
Wouldn't normally throw this kinda thing on the forum but to me this is a big event shaping the next 5 years
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Well said Queensland addick and agree. There have been a number of factors at play here the first is that The Greeks want to maintain their inflated and unrealistic social benefits such as retirement at 52 without paying the necessary income tax to pay for this and on the other hand you have Germany's paranoia around inflationary actions such as a Eurobank bail out which goes back to the 1930's when their economy collapsed. The best result would be a some sort of orderly departure from the
They felt that the measures already imposed were frankly 'unfair'. When you consider that there economy is largely based on service industries like tourism, there ability to turn this mess around seems to be beyond the individual. People that I spoke to knew things had to change, but it was the time framework, and severity that was the issue. All very well for a political party to have a mandate, policies and a big stick, but unlike the UK the greek culture seems to be in another time frame.
I expect Mr. Popolopolopoladisisisopolardisis will get elected.
1 driver
1 fare collector
1 ticket issuer
Then retire at 50 on full pension
madness.
We know a professional couple that live on the coast, he is a vet and she is a solicitor, both earn very good money, work for themselves and pay next to no tax at all.
They ignore the tax return forms that come out once a year because they are never followed up.
They also own a block with 4 apartments in it which they rent out for holidays (how we know them), its all cash and nothing is declared.
My sister in law and her husband go and live in one of the apartmnets for 6 months of the year and have got to know the family and a lot of their friends really well and the above is common throughout them all.
...If you look at ft.com there is an article by the Syriza leader today - looks convincing but his mob seem to stretch from Lib Dem to Old Labour... so what are the chances of a decent resolution with the IMF
As per Queensland maybe DeutscheBahn should buy the Greek rail network etc.
Don't forget that the money that should have been paid in taxes is still being held by individuals and companies that refused to pay what they should have by law.
My friend in Athens was telling me that the tax system is basically self declaration, so even doctors, lawyers and very high earners claim they earn below the tax-paying threshold so pay no tax - and there is never any follow up.
Their rationale for not paying is that the government would only "waste" their taxes if they paid them!
This left-wing little prick Tsipras is a typical scum-bag politician, seeing a gap in the market and telling the punters what they want to hear which, in this case, is to refuse to pay back what they owe to the Germans.
One only need look at the current goings on in Argentina to see the longer term dangers of defaulting on your debts, the Argies are hoarding cash because nobody will borrow them money because they defaulted on their loans 10 years back.
Can't they go to Wonga? I think they overlook CCJs and the like ;-)
You can't blame the Greeks for being against austerity - especially when the austerity in store for them will see many struggle to put food in their Children's mouths. Great how we/ the rest of Europe look down on them for not welcoming the idea with open arms whilst the people who started this crisis are awarding themselves massive bonuses again!
Well Muttley I too don't want to see children going hungry but I cannot agree with what you say. The system and by dint of that the citizens have lived under a system that ignores personal responsibility (paying your taxes in return for services, pensions etc), overpaying and overstaffing and now want the rest of Europe to pay for their profigatory. It isn't just bankers who are to blame here it is a whole country that borrowed more than it could afford and lied to get the money and sorry but this is the case.
Let me give you an analogy. Your next door neighbour doesn't pay his rent/mortgage but still buys flat screen TV's, laptops and a nice BMW the baliffs come round to repossess the house (basically = austerity) but before asking him to leave they ask you to pay his arrears....I don't know for certain but I can make a good guess what the answer would be.
Of course it is true that levels of public spending were too high in Greece and to be fair in this country. In the defence of the previous administration, we had years of sustained growth which actually mean't debt was much lower than under the Tories but public spending was dangerously high should we fall into this kind of disaster.
To be fair, the Labour Government realised this in 2005 ish and were gradually looking to lower the costs in many areas. We now have the situation where our economy is smaller and we are poorer - well some of us are anyway. And that is my major gripe- we are not in this together at all and the system needs changing. Free capitalism has been discredited, of course their is no option other than a capitalist system- history has shown us that, but there needs to be an alternative were the markets and bankls have less freedom and wealth is more evenely spread around. It will be difficult to achieve, because the wealthy don't want to give up any of their wealth and they ahve th epower and influence.