On the EU, helthcare, standards, PSI, Dublin II, tourism, deficits
And still the deficit shortfalls continue under Mr. Venizelos? watch as finance minister. Does anyone doubt that his solution to this ongoing problem will include even more taxes? I respectfully ask the forum, can anyone please explain to me why no one, not one person in our government, understands that raising taxes during a recession violates every tenet of every school of economics (Austrian, Keynesian, monetarist, or classical)?
First-year economics students are taught that higher taxes extend a recession by reducing savings, investment, and productive consumption (as opposed to the parasitic type known to all of us as wasteful government spending). Furthermore, raising taxes will not lower the inflation rate and in all likelihood will give our government another excuse to spend even more money.
In short, if our government is serious about ending the recession, then they need to drastically cut taxes across the board while simultaneously cutting government spending everywhere.
There is simply no excuse for this type of gross ignorance and resulting incompetence.
Jonathan Reynik
Now help the rest of the tourist industry
Very nice, lots of jobs, and lots of income in the ports. Now how about helping those of us who bring tourists to stay in Greece, who spend money on food, car hire, petrol, general shopping etc. Or foreigners who come and buy, whose families and friends come on holiday and spend! This is of a far wider, and far-reaching nature and can ensure income for years to come — if we don?t all have to close down first. If we had tax and social security concessions from the government, help with modernisation, and revisions of the ridiculous illogical EOT law requirements, then we would be in a position to compete with other tourist destinations, instead of having to stagger on with no help from anywhere, just the government clawing what little surplus might have gone into improvements for the future.
Diana Giannoulis
Re: Dublin II
In 2010 112,000 illegal immigrants came into Greece. They arrived at the Evros border undocumented, unannounced. So many claim asylum, but how do you prove it? The fact that Frontex is now in Evros and a 12-kilometer fence is going up means that there is a huge problem. Frontex has also admitted that Greece is the largest transit spot for illegal entry into Europe. Turkey is also behind the illegal people-smuggling ring and they charge anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000 euros each to get them to Greece.
The fact that many illegal immigrants are waiting at ports like Patra and Igoumenitsa to board ships and they are not allowed to move on is a problem for Greece. Greece has called for changes to Dublin II and the fact that even the current opposition leader, Mr Samaras, has publicly stated he will scrap it if he gets elected as it works against Greece means it is a hot topic. Mr Schroeder, as we say in Australia, let?s agree to disagree.
George Salamouras
PSI
PSI has been — and will be — a disaster. Changing one?s law to effectively write off your debt will be devastating for Greece and the other Eurozone strugglers!
Johny Udw
Oriental nostalgia vs W European reality
Andreas Argeros and John Dimitropoulos seem to have some interesting things to say today…
I often go to Greek TV and movie websites to see what?s happening on Greek TV. Now TV everywhere is in a pretty poor state, that much has to be said. But mostly in W. Europe at least 10% of TV output is really high quality even if the rest is dross. On these Greek websites I?m hard put to find that 10%. If there is any really high-quality Greek programme making I would genuinely like to know about it. Greek TV at present simply seems to add to my impression that Greeks took the cheapest and lowest-quality W. European TV shows and imitated them. Talk shows, entertainment shows with entertainers looking like cheap pornstars or something out of UK TV?s Eastenders. And everywhere this kind is combined with Greek Oriental…
I go to Italian TV. Yes they have their share of dross. But they also have shows like Il Commissario Montalbano, and the wonderful Andrea Bocelli. This stuff is light-years ahead of anything I?ve found on Greek TV. And it?s quality.
Greeks seem to have taken to the cheap end of the EU like ducks to water. And yet the other end of the Romiosyni cultural spectrum is firmly stuck in Asia Minor in 1922 and developments of that. Greek nostagia for the golden days of Romiosyni in Asia Minor is astonishingly resilient. Greeks were Asia Minor and Hellenistic Oriental before they became Ottoman. 3,000 years of Oriental. Oriental and modern W. European simply doesn?t mix.
Look at Germany and its Turks.
If Greeks are going to stick with their Asia Minor nostagia and all the socio-cultural-economic features of that (tax evasion, fatalistic non-competitiveness, state welfare aka state employment and subsidy, creatively deadening nostagia for things Oriental/Asia Minor), then they won?t ever become Europeans of any sort, let alone ?core Europeans?…
Yet many Greeks seem to believe that with EU money came primary resources, industrialisation, magical productivity together with R
