Paradoxes and irony
Graft and corruption
Almost exactly one year ago I lodged a complaint with the «nomarcheia? (prefecture) against a totally illegal building being erected below my house. So far, no action has been taken. Why? Because, I fear, of corruption within the system.
Similarly, I have just returned from my accountant where I paid his annual bill. When I asked for a tax receipt, he laughed. That was a huge joke!
Until Greece purges officialdom of corruption and enforces proper tax payments on earnings, it will continue to stagger from one crisis to another.
DAVID BEE
Bullied? Not really
Why is Greece being ?bullied?? Let’s look at the opposite side of the coin and ask all the ministers over the decades how much they’ve made on the backs of hardworking private sector taxpayers! We’ve all heard and read in the papers for years now about bribes, bribes and more bribes. There’s no bullying, only bribes being taken and old men getting married to very young women at the taxpayer?s expense at very expensive hotels we hope to one be able to stay in! We’re now being taxed so heavily we’re on the verge of closing businesses to pay these taxes, debts created by the brave 300 who created a civil service of 1 million (?!) to vote for these great politicians who promised jobs and bonuses, again on our private sector taxes.
So let?s keep it real, no bullying, it’s how much I’m going to make and when I can buy that next Ferretti yacht!
Lies, lies and more lies. Period.
PETER KATES
Diaspora bonds an ironic idea
Do the Greeks living in Greece see the irony of a Greek government seeking to plug its abysmal finances by reaching out for the emotional wallets of emigrants to faraway lands such as the USA? Haven?t Greeks been leaving Greece for decades, or even centuries, in search of a better life due to the lack of economic opportunities at home? While hardworking Greeks only asked for the opportunity to compete, be educated, and contribute to an economically vibrant country, Greece traversed the recent decades micromanaging its economy to varying degrees, but always within the confines of the ?fakelaki? and ?meso.? The adoption of the euro allowed profligate governments to live well beyond their means as state borrowing costs stayed well below true market-clearing levels for too long, masking the increasingly unsustainable level of government debt, waste and sclerotic bureaucracy. Now that the music has stopped, Greece has suddenly remembered its ?rich uncle? living abroad, and is coming hat in hand for help. Well, as you look around your neighborhood and see economic immigrants from lands as near as Albania to as far away as the Philippines filling the jobs that Greeks are too good for or too few anymore to occupy, take a moment and ask them whether they would ever send money to the state that fathered them but offered no economic freedom.
DIMITRI TRIANTAFYLLIDES
Euro countries need to pay off Greek military debt
Prime Minister Papandreou must tell his eurozone partners that the only effective manner to firewall the eurozone economies from this crisis spilling over from Greece to the rest of the eurozone, is to establish a transfer union within the eurozone in regards to military expenditure, whose first task will be to immediately cover financially the Greek military debt that has accumulated over the last 36 years, which is the primary reason why the Greek economy has sunk. And Turkey is to blame for this. Turkey is being used as a proxy by the opponents of the euro and the European Union to tear apart and demolish the euro currency and the European Union.
By establishing a eurozone transfer union for military expenditure, eurozone countries will become aware of the need for an effective EU defense force where military costs are shared equally amongst eurozone members. This would severely dent the ambitions of all opponents of the euro and the European Union. This is the only effective firewall to protect the euro currency from external forces that are seeking its destruction.
The eurozone must act. The eurozone must pay off immediately the massive Greek defense military debt and establish a transfer union with the European Security and Defense Policy.
GERRY MAVRIS
