How about forgive the debt, then make sure they don't get into this mess again? You know, like what we (allegedly) did for the banks.
Excluded middle ... but you know that, right?
How about forgive the debt, then make sure they don't get into this mess again? You know, like what we (allegedly) did for the banks. -- Drew |
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OK, how do you do that?
You're just going to impose a functional economic system on them, yes? Did you miss the part where everything (and I mean everything) in their economic system is either fucked, corrupt or both? |
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You broke it, you bought it
If I had an easy answer I'd be applying for my Nobel already. But I know "make it substantially worse than it already is and still don't fix anything" isn't a great plan. -- Drew |
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This.
The IMF report recommendations is a good start. Cheers, Scott. |
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Why not?
You assume that that's the worst possible outcome. Perhaps things have to get substantially worse before the Greeks are moved to fix their problems and thus make things better. |
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I don't know that 12-step programs work on social psychology
"Hitting bottom" is generally talking about breaking addictions or chronic behaviors. I wouldn't assume that it applies equally to a society. An individual can be erratic but a psychological breakthrough only has to happen once. In a society different groups can have their own epiphanies, while other groups invent new pathologies on the fly. Do you really want to count on an entire country achieving enlightenment simultaneously? -- Drew |
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Or we could just keep right on tipping money into their economy
...which will keep them retiring at 50 on 80% of their final salaries. Yeah, let's do that. |
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Oh, I see, you just make up convenient "facts."
Greeks retire early. The figure of 53 years old as an average retirement age is being bandied about. So much so, that it is has become folk-fact. It originates from a lazy comment on the New York Times website. It was then repeated by Fox News and printed in other publications. Greek civil servants have the option to retire after 17.5 years of service, but this is on half benefits. The figure of 53 is a misinformed conflation of the number of people who choose to do this (in most cases to go on to different careers) and those who stay in public service until their full entitlement becomes available. http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/world-affairs/2012/05/exploding-myth-feckless-lazy-greeks |
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Whev
Go you! You found an error that makes Greece kindasorta not look like a complete economic basket case! Technically correct, the best kind of correct! They're working SO hard and being SO honest and they're SO well-disciplined that this is all someone else's fault. Fuck that. Greece is in a bed of its own making - a debt built on endemic corruption, tax evasion, cronyism and all the other shit that goes along with it. As a nation, if you dodge €30B/year of taxes but spend the money anyway, you're gonna end up fucked. But yeah, it's obviously not Greece's fault and the EZ countries should just keep right on paying. |
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Re: EZ countries should just keep right on paying.
I'm not suggesting that. I'm only suggesting that the bankster controlled governments admit their part in making a bad situation (entirely the fault of the Greeks) immeasurably worse and the current "we must continue the punishment, it's the only way to save them" policy is horribly flawed. |
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Right.
It's a relatively new country after all. If they're going to survive for, say, as long as England has and ever contribute anything to the world, they'll figure these things out. But today they're so young. Left to their own devices they'd obviously disappear in a decade. |