Euro-masquerade in Greece

[Themis]

So, the EU and IMF are going to lend some 200B€ to Greece.

In exchange the Greek government has to:

- Cut 1/7th of the salary of public employees. (I doubt anybody will accept anything like this. I doubt anybody is able to accept anything like this without changing the lifestyle of his/her family).
- Cut 1/7th of some public employees' retirement pensions (I don't even imagine the reaction of the retired who have no job to loose -and thus- no pressure)
- Increase VAT and some indirect taxes (that's easy to do)
- Increase the retirement limit for employees to 67 years. (I don't quite see how this will make the state richer, but anyway...)

... but also...
- Increase from 2% to more than 4% the limit for massive lay-offs in the private domain. (:scratch: strange that... what has it to do with the state's ability of giving back the money ?),
- Abolish the employees' right for going to Labour Court for illegal lay-offs. All Collective Bargainings will be abolished and reworked (:scratch: :lol:)
- Sell urgently (before may 15th) the most profitable public groups (:lol: :lol: :lol:)

I've rarely seen such a masquerade. :mental:
The causes and effects are so decorrelated, it clearly indicates there are far too many things that the politicians and financials hide from us.

It will end up badly for the whole EU, mark my word.

[Ali Tait]

You're not wrong Dimitri.

[REM]

...and then there's the small matter of Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain. What a load of piis takers....:rolleyes:

[Alex_UK]

- Increase the retirement limit for employees to 67 years. (I don't quite see how this will make the state richer, but anyway...)


Presumably there is no State pension? In that case I guess the reasoning is to keep people working and therefore contributing to the economy by buying more stuff than if they had retired, as well as carrying on paying income tax?

Will they do eBay "Buy it Now" on the profitable Public concerns, or let the auctions run the full 9 days, do you think? ;)

Generally, I fear this is the tip of the iceberg - it might not affect the UK after next week, we will probably elect UKIP into power due to apathy, and we will leave the EU very shortly thereafter...

:goodbye:

[Themis]

Presumably there is no State pension? In that case I guess the reasoning is to keep people working and therefore contributing to the economy by buying more stuff than if they had retired, as well as carrying on paying income tax?

Yes, there is a State pension.
And I doubt public employees will contribute to the economy more by working, as their salaries (and their retirement pensions) should get diminished by about 15% (as it is foreseen in the "measures")... :scratch:

The real problems in Greece are that :
-- the State instances are corrupted.
-- the richest people/firms and all the small self-employed pay almost no tax. Only taxes through salaries are perceived by the state. Bank accounts are secret and their operations can only be analyzed after a court decision... ;)

And, as you can see, the "measures" don't seem to change anything about it.

[The Grand Wazoo]

I've always thought increasing retirement age is a foolish fallacy that political parties try to sell us as a 'good thing'. A pain free way of improving the economy.

What does it do?
It keeps the young unemployed, that's what it bloody well does.

[Themis]

Chris, you're absolutely right.
We need more jobs, not higher retirement age. That's the point.

But can we get "more jobs" in the middle of an economical crisis ? Let me laugh ! :lol:

So, the mechanics is:
Higher retirement -> higher unemployment -> higher criminality and xenophobia

Visibly, some prefer employing more policemen than having more people retired. ;)

(and, btw, the average retirement pension in Greece is very low. My father perceived £250/month. And my mother, who worked for 42 years and invested in a -private- complementary pension, gets £750/month)