Does the plan still entail absolutely fucktarded moves like selling off the transmission networks for electricity and gas? You know, the meat-and-potatoes on every government's revenue sheet?
Because if so, I really hope for a parliamentary riot.
Is this really true across Europe? In the US there are some public utilities, but most are private. And in some places that means customers have a choice of who to purchase from because of competition.
If they sell off the energy management infrastructure so that it is ultimately controlled by someone else, could, like, losing power be a consequence of not paying their bills in 3 years? Would this just twist the knife further?
Utilities are still regulated (so they can't just jack up prices by a crazy amount) and they can't cut off necessary service (ex you can't get your heat cut in the middle of winter because you didn't pay the bill), but the idea of privately run utilities shouldn't be a scary thing.
Privately run also doesn't have to mean "owned by one person." It can be a company with stock bought and sold on a public exchange.
You do know that, while prices in Greece are about 25% lower than in Germany, the average Greek earns about 40% of what the average German does? It's what tends to occur in a monetary union: prices for goods (especially those produced by trans/multinational companies) move towards parity.
Comparing average salaries (are you basing that off GDP or some other metric) isn't the best metric as Germany has a high concentration of wealth at the high end and it is not equally spread amongst its population.
This 2013 study takes a look at both the median and the mean of household wealth and illustrates that point.
http://www.voxeu.org/article/are-germans-really-poorer-spaniards-italians-and-greeks
If you look at the median (midpoint, rather than the mean), Germans have much lower household wealth. If you look at the mean (traditional average), Germans have a much higher household wealth.
Averages can be distorted by a heavy weighting on one side of the spectrum, while a median is the exact halfway point. Exactly half of the population has a household wealth of the median or below.
With a population of ~80 million in Germany, that means ~40 million people are living in households with wealth at or below the median (~50k euro) as of 2013.
Greece has a population of ~11 million, which means ~6.5 million people are living in households with a wealth at or below the median (~100k euro) as of 2013.
Now the averages are different, with the mean household wealth in Germany being ~195k euro while the mean in Greece was ~148k euro as of 2013.
You'll note that the German mean is much higher than the median, while Greece's numbers are much closer together.
In short, based on this data set, there were likely more Germans (in absolute numbers) with a standard of living below that of the typical Greek in 2013. Germany has an elite that is incredibly better off, but that wealth is concentrated among those elite and not spread across the population at large.
Combine that, with the fact that the majority of Greeks own more than one home, and it is easy to see why popular sentiment can easily be swayed in Germany as far as bailout terms. You've got a large population which sees a smaller population that appears to be both better off (on a person to person view) and owns prime oceanfront property asking for help.
On a macro economics level, it makes sense for the EU countries to pull together and help each other, but the average person doesn't care about that and you're not going to get all of the theory into a soundbite.
Throw out basic numbers though and people grab onto that, even if the entire problem is much more complex.
TL;DR - "Rich Germans" is just as false as "Lazy Greeks."
This is exactly the kind of thing that the Eurozone prevents.
So in your previous post you admitted that they were yesmen no? Then if it is so, how is what I wrote incorrect.
You can, that's what they have been doing. But everyone is buying from these states. That's why the cost of living cannot be significantly lower within the Eurozone even if it is so.
That doesn't quite make sense as it is exactly what happens within the US. States which have a cheaper cost of living (and some states do have a significantly lower cost of living) sell to other states with a higher cost of living.
Businesses set themselves up based on what is most advantageous. This is why you see call centers in the Midwest, supporting all of the US. Lower average wages, lower average cost of living and therefore lower expense to run the call center. The state sees more jobs and gets the tax income.
It doesn't work that way. You can't sign bilateral treaties like that anymore, it's one large common market where Greek goods compete with those from other countries. I remember seeing oranges from freaking Zimbabwe last time I went to a local supermarket. Bloody Zimbabwe, where a wad of cash is best used as bog roll. How does one compete with that?
That is good for Greece though. Stores are getting you the cheapest oranges rather than you having to pay more.
Regardless, this entire episode has put egg on the face of the entire Eurozone. It doesn't matter which side of the rhetoric you happen to buy into, everyone walks away from this looking horrible. Reading the comments by leaders, MEPs, and average citizens, I couldn't help but notice there's a lot of "Northern Europe" vs. "Southern Europe" sentiment. It makes the "ever closer union" ideal look like a complete pipe dream and it feels like the various countries of Europe are stepping back into their old habits of forging alliances of similar ideologies.
Even if it were a USoE instead of the EU, you would still see rivalries. Hell, you see Northern CA fight Southern CA over water.
"Northern Europe" vs. "Southern Europe" shouldn't be enough to sink the idea of a closer union.
¯\_(ツ
_/¯
Chief theory is that he indeed wanted to lose it, to justify his capitulation.
...
You can nationalize the banks and send the fuckers that gambled the system and fucked up to jail, m8.
If he wanted to lose, then why did he campaign so hard for "No?" Horrible planning if that's the case.
And you can't just jail people if they haven't broken any laws.
In 2013 and 2014, about two thousand Greeks moved to Sweden (there are now 15k Greeks in Sweden, total), many more to other European countries. I'd be willing to bet that most of them are young and many of them educated, which means they'll most likely contribute to the Swedish economy and pay taxes. I imagine there's a similar (most likely bigger) movement to big countries like France and Germany.
She should think about that the next time she says "The tax payers in the other Euro countries are the ones who are paying."
Once people move to another country they are taxpayers of that new country. Doesn't mean said country is going to suddenly want to send tax money to others.
That's one of the downsides to the EU. You have freedom of movement and of jobs, but no way to balance out money across the whole of the EU.
Saw this on BBC.co.uk
Oh boy
Nice little phone there. Have one sitting on my desk. Camera is crap tho.
So the Greece people overwhelmingly voted no for the exact thing their government has been forced to agree to?
The EU is dangerously undemocratic.
How is the EU "dangerously undemocratic?"
If you want to base it on pure democracy (aka a vote of the people) then Greece should be doing whatever the majority of the people in the EU say.
Democracy is, quite literally, "Majority Rules."
Now, Greece's government is totally pissing in the face of its people, but that's on the Greek government, not the EU. If the leaders really do represent their people, then they should have turned down the offer and dealt with a planed Grexit.
Jacobin recently ran an article on
life under austerity in greece, from the pov of a fast food worker.
The things that stick out most to me about that article are:
1) The basic life of a fast food worker is the same in the US as it is in Europe (aka it's a "job" not a career).
2) Most of his problems are due to his boss not following the law. Rather than just accepting that, he should report his boss and file a lawsuit so he is getting benefits as the law requires.
3) 10 years to get a degree doesn't sound like the most focused person on the planet.
4) Rent in his area is cheap.
5) Electrical engineers are in demand across Europe. If he did well in school, he should be able to land a job somewhere in Europe pretty easily.
This makes a lot more sense. If they are willing to break agreements, then they must face the consequences, if any.
I am honestly surprised they took the deal (so far) vs. stepping out. It'll be an interesting couple of days in the Greek legislature. And it turns out the referendum and all that jazz was nothing but a stall tactic with no bargaining power gained.
Much of what Greece did over the last six months was all about stall tactics.
In one where you have a fucking union with those other countries?
Jesus.
No wonder the Euro is a disaster...
It would have had an effect if the Greek government followed it, but it was only binding on the Greek government.
Again, if you want pure democracy, then every citizen of the EU has to have an equal voice. The voice of a Greek citizen shouldn't carry any more weight than a citizen of another EU nation.
Pure democracy is based on numbers which means that Greece is always going to run the risk of having its desires be overwhelmed by the desires of more populated countries.
You lost all respect for him because he took steps to abstain from voting on a package that went against what he believed? What?
If he stood by his principles, he should have just gone in and voted "No."
