Poor in society need state help
The report on poverty released today by Greece’s National Statistics Service held few surprises. The data published in the document have been familiar for the past couple of years; mainly, it shows that some 800,000 Greek households, that is over 2 million people, live below the poverty line. Most assuredly, such grim figures are hardly exclusive to Greece. Conditions are in fact worse in many other European countries – with one crucial difference. Unlike Greece, most foreign governments have hammered out extensive social welfare programs aimed at lifting the disadvantaged from poverty. Economic policymakers in other countries have introduced subsidies for lower-income workers and the unemployed that help these people cover their basic needs. After all, that is a sine qua non of the continent’s much-cherished social welfare model that has prevailed since the time of Bismarck – notwithstanding attempts to weaken or dismantle it over the past few years. Things here are different, of course. Despite all the talk of reinforcing the social model, funds have been sorely lacking. The so-called reformist governments of PASOK left the national economy in a mess, squeezing any space for welfare policies catering to the country’s needy mass of 2 million people. Greece’s public debt is over 200 billion euros, meaning that the government has to spend about 9 billion euros per year just on servicing the interest rate. In fact, more money goes to the servicing of interest than to the country’s social security funds. Greece’s overindebtedness puts the brakes on any substantial welfare policy aimed at easing the burden on these 2 million of our fellow citizens. People are faced with an unhelpful state. Worse, they are thrown into an unequal struggle against corruption and red tape, a system that feeds on bribes and kickbacks that even statistics cannot record. This is a grave problem that threatens individuals as well as the cohesion of society at large.
