My hot take is that the Greek government was largely corrupted by banks, the IMF, the EU and Germany to borrow, try to pay back with more borrowing, and be put into a debt trap and then the lenders’ solution is cripple them with austerity.
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Greece is still pretty messed up. No one pays taxes. Generals’ daughters get a pension for life. Stuff like that.
From a 2015 article
Greece joined the European Community in 1981 because “we didn’t want to see Plato play in the second division”, the head of the European commission Jean-Claude Juncker said.
Greece’s entry was a way to ensure democracy and stability in southern Europe at the height of the cold war.
And it worked. Greece was the model, Spain and Portugal followed, joining in 1986. But Greece was also a warning: levels of corruption were worse than the European average, the state was poor at collecting taxes. Lax public administration was harder to change once a country was inside the EU. Later entrants from central and eastern Europe had to pass stricter standards.
Politics also helped Greece join the euro in 2001. Although it was not until 2004 that Athens admitted entry figures had been fudged, the dodgy numbers were an open secret in Brussels. Many other countries were doing the same, albeit on a smaller scale. Only later when Greece buckled under the weight of its debts did European grandees say it had been “a mistake” to allow Greece to join the currency.
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I’m Irish too (who isn’t?). There is no group that is always in the moral right. Sadly, it seems almost human to jump at the chance to be on the wrong side of a power dynamic.
So there’s no agency? I’ll happily say that the Greeks are victims. But I’m absolutely certain that the IMF is not what you think it is. Yes, I read The Nation and such things. I also went to school.
That’s not what happened. Not collecting taxes while granting generous early pensions was not sustainable.
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Varoufakis isn’t exactly an unbiased source.
The profligacy of Greek governments and the staggering laxity of lenders after the country joined the European common currency in 2001 had left it with huge debts that, in the aftermath of a global recession, it could no longer afford to service.
Like I was saying…
When you take over governments you grant privileges to enough people so that you have the necessary support. Imperialism 101.
The big picture is wealth flowing into banks (and hence Germany). It’s by design. And the whining of Germans about how their tax dollars are being used to forgive debts that Greece owes should be directed at the banks and not Greece.
Neither is random German tax payer.
Okay. Now we can agree.
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Feeling pretty hipster about Hamilton, in that I’ve read the book but haven’t seen the play.
Gotta listen to the occasional Model Talk podcast where he discusses such things.
Agree, but there are always the Rawanda type situations, to say nothing of religious conflicts.
We need an anti-hate ideology to go along with anti-racism.
One of the surest paths to power in a democracy is running against the minority.
Is it bad to smoke weed everyday?
- Yes
- No
- Maybe
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