Why the greek crisis occurred:
"Why did the Greek crisis occur? The Greeks wanted to turn their country into a pinata stuffed with cash and allow as many citizens as possible to take a whack at it.
Lewis explains that when he visited Greece he heard so many tales of deception, corruption, cheating, and outright theft that he simply lost interest.
It was if the entire country was set up to encourage cheating. The few tax collectors who tried to report tax cheats were reassigned. Plastic surgeons earning more than a million dollars a year (like just about every other doctor) reported under $12,000 in income so they didn’t have to pay any taxes. Nothing gets done without a bribe, overpaid civil servants don’t work, teachers don’t teach, and everyone gets to retire early with generous pensions."
Is this true??
-
3 people like this.
-
Esmeralda Hope Yes, as unbelievable as it sounds, it`s true. I lived there for 10 years and witnessed all this first hand. The whole system has been governed by what i call Myselfism mind states.
-
Manolis Spanakis Anti-Greek neo-liberal propaganda
Like · Reply · 20 hrs · Edited
-
Ariadne Vassiliki Kontoukas What really happened?
-
-
George Kapitsopoulos absolutely true...
-
Ariadne Vassiliki Kontoukas Really??
-
Ariadne Vassiliki Kontoukas I don't know much about it
-
Write a reply...
-
-
Dimitris Rawvegan Chef its true...in greece ppl still victimize themselves blaming "others"as usuall they dont want to loose their benefits from accesing the puplic money
-
Zachary Kontaratos everything written in that article is true, however Germany and other counties were well aware of the situation because their companies such as Siemens played vital role in the corruption. Now they are after Greece's oil and gas
-
Manolis Spanakis How would it feel if I said that "Germans are Nazis", "German pilots are suicidal", "Italians are Mafiosi" or "Australians are always drunk"? I lived 28 years in Greece; I never bribed anybody, nor did my friends or relatives as far as I am aware; I had wonderful teachers, both at school and at the university; I worked for a public university and I was paid 3 time less than I was in England or in France, for the same job; my salary was always taxed at the source, as are the salaries of every employee in the public or private sector as well as the pensions wherever they come from; and I won't get any pension before the age of 67. It is true that some freelance professionals as well as some big enterprises hide their earnings and evade taxation, but this is a very small minority of the active population and happens everywhere on Earth at more-or-less the same rate. It may be true that 3 out 10000 drivers do not respect the traffic lights and that might be 3 times higher than 1/10000 in some other country, but it is unfair for the 9997/10000 Greeks, who do respect them, to say that "Greeks do not respect the traffic lights". The trouble is that, recently, mass media and web sites propagate such myths in order to distract the world public opinion from the real causes of the the Greek Economic Crisis, which causes concern every country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw0vwN3GU9E
Selective Observation and Overgeneralization
YOUTUBE.COM
-
Zachary Kontaratos the truth of the matter is that it was not just 3 in 10000. Hundreds of thousands of people were appointed in the public sector most of them graduates of elementary school, by the two political parties in power. Their salaries specially in the public utilities companies were higher than the earnings of ceos in the states. Compensations for some of them working in banks exceeded 150000 euros. In England no one relieves such a compensation and their salary was not doubled in April and December. So the truth of the matter is that some billions per year that we were forced to borrow per year to pay many imbeciles doing nothing in the public sector and thousands of them getting out of the work force specially from the police, army at the age of 45 and 50 without having contributed enough money in their pension fund. Who ever denies such true statements lives in the fantasy world. I also believe that a university prof who would reject an evaluation would be fired at once. Should we talk about the compensation to farmers from EU, taxation , education, taxes and so forth. I think we have to face reality and allow criticism on a corrupted political system in Greece.
-
-
Ariadne Vassiliki Kontoukas I like this discussion. Thanks also for writing in English.
-
-
Dimitris Rawvegan Chef freelancers are not small manority they are majority,farmers, companies, tourist business, all escape taxes.. goverment officials suck the public money and they are not productive, statism is the second main issue after tax evade, greeks own houses in max rate in world 84%...that tax evade money.they all blame capitalism but they love the easy loans all those years..
-
Manolis Spanakis Dimitri, according to OECD, freelancers ARE a small minority. The employees are 63%. Those cannot help but pay their taxes at the source. The employers and people working for their own account are 32%, including agricultural activities (farmers, 9%) and professional, scientific and technical activities (doctors, lawyers,architects, car technicians etc., all in all 5%). Of course not all self-employed are cheaters. Suppose that half of the freelancers and company bosses cheat - which, I believe, is a gross over-estimation. Even in that case the cheaters would be about 15% of the labor force, which may be a little more than in other countries. Yet, what maters more is not how many people cheat but what amounts they steal. The few richer steal much more. According to the Pareto law, 20% of the cheaters (i.e. 3% of the working force in my example) steal the 80% of the stolen taxes.
-
Manolis Spanakis Zachary, I have lived in the UK and everybody knows that some people, particularly in the finance sector of the City, get scandalous bonuses. Also here, in France, my big boss gets 7 million a year and then he cuts budget and jobs for "competitiveness". This is "free economy" and this is everywhere so. Whether or not "the salary doubles at Xmas and Easter" is irrelevant. What matters is the yearly earnings, not how these are distributed per month (which is a question of culture and personal needs). According to OECD, the average salary in Greece is about half, compared to Germany, France, Finland or Ireland (or almost any other Eurozone country for that matter).
-
Manolis Spanakis Another widely spread myth is that Greeks are lazy, they do not work hard. Well, again according to OECD, Greeks are the second hardest working nation in the world after the Mexicans. The French are fifth from the bottom; never mind the Germans and the Dutch who figure last with hardly more than half working hours per year, while getting double salary, compared to Greeks. So, give us a break...!
-
Manolis Spanakis Here is a documentary, with English subtitles, about the history and the true causes of the Greek crisis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKpxPo-lInk
For the first time in Greece a documentary produced by the audience. "Debtocracy" seeks the causes of the...
YOUTUBE.COM
Like · Reply · Remove Preview · 1 hr · Edited
-
Manolis Spanakis And here is a second part, withEnglish subtitles, on the real reasons behind the Greek crisis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCGSiqow9k4
Catastroika (English Subtitles)
The creators of Debtocracy, a documentary with two million views broadcasted from Japan to Latin...
YOUTUBE.COM
Like · Reply · Remove Preview · 1 hr
-
Write a comment...
