The recent crisis in Greece seems to be bringing out a lot of very negative attacks on the Greek people. A lot of commentators point at the high level of tax evasion in Greece, but often ignoring the huge mistakes and corruption the Greek Government is guilty of . Yes Greece has a major problem here but this isn’t a new thing for Greece. While the tax revenues would help tackle, but not solve, the debt they were never planned for. Every country has tax evasion, or its legal but morally dubious equivalent tax avoidance. If you expect to get X but would rather get Y you plan for X. The tax evasion is a cultural thing so its nothing new, its not that the country stopped paying taxes, many never paid. For some perspective the UK has a much higher rate of Tax evasion and avoidance.
The other thing that has caused the crisis to go from bad to catastrophic has been the very rescue package of austerity measure setup to get Greece out of this mess. By biting so hard so quickly the measure quickly dealt a death blow to the Greek economy, resulting in the growth required to help pay off the debt failed to materialize. A death spiral has since taken place, only slowed by ever bigger bail outs from the rest of Europe.
Europe, or rather the Eurozone, can’t afford Greece to exit the euro or leave the zone. Instead the Greek government bis bribed to stay in; but at the cost of ever harsher austerity measures. Its no surprise that France and German had a panic when the Greek PM called a referendum. The Greek people would be far better of taking the hit and leaving the Euro. It would allow their economy to deflate their debt and eventually they would recover. Given tourism is a maor part of their economy having a lot of cheap holidays would be a major draw in the current climate, drachma or no drachma. Even the best case scenario of sticking with the euro promises a decade of pain and stagnation.
Europe, Germany in particular, keeps laying into Greece for its mismanagement and the strict measures are just tough love. Ironically if Germany repaid the money stolen from Greece during the war then much of the Greek debt would disappear. Of course they won’t, they can’t set a president. But the Greek people must be wondering why they, in particular the old and the working classes, must suffer to pay off a debt when German chooses to ignore its own debt to Greece.
It was only a matter of time before Godwin was invoked.
As with anything on a large scale its impossible to think about this Greek Tragedy in terms of the ordinary lives its ruining. People are starving in Greece. Its not a case of missing out on luxury items, people are going without food. This is no longer just a political experiment for Europe’s Elite, its becoming a matter of life and death. The only question left is how far and wide the damage will be and how long Prime Ministers and Chancellors will keep sacrificing people for ideals and their own power.
"One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic."
Tags: derek dunnington, euro, eurozone, german war debt, greek crisis, greek tax evasion
