Syriza to get majority in Greece.

[Harrystottle]

What sort of confidence does it place in 'the great Euro project' if members of that project are as financially sound as a jonesing smackhead with a crisp twenty euro note????

 

Well yes, true. But the Greek economy never met the criteria for joining the Euro in the first place, so financial soundness is only part of the picture.

[geared]

No they weren't fit to enter, but then I suppose financial soundness has always been their issue.

 

They weren't fit to enter, they got in anyway, they went mental on easily available Euro money, spent way too much, earnt way too little, wheels came off the wagon, and here we all are.

[Anna B]

This is true. The Greek attitude to paying tax has to change (like changing to actually paying some). There are a couple of hundred people in North Athens paying property tax on a swimming pool. Satellite photos show there are thousands of swimming pools in North Athens. You can't afford to have people retiring on full pensions at 50, or giving full pensions to the family of state employees. This stuff has to go.

 

But what is the creditors attitude going to be? Keep the Greeks in the Euro at all costs and keep the great Euro project on the rails, as the French seem to want? Or to give the Greeks some serious shoe leather, as the fed up Germans seem to want?

 

People here in Britain keep saying that the rich pay most of the tax - so shouldn't such comments be directed at the uber rich shipping oligarchs in Greece who pay next to nothing.

 

There are plenty of them. Start with them rather than the poor, 50% of whom are unemployed, and the money will soon start flowing in.

[The Joker]

good on the Greeks for rejecting austerity.

 

Unlike us lot, who voted in another five years of it

[Anna B]

Well yes, true. But the Greek economy never met the criteria for joining the Euro in the first place, so financial soundness is only part of the picture.

 

If Greece wasn't financially fit to join, how come countries like Romania and Lithuania were able to join?

[convert]

If Greece wasn't financially fit to join, how come countries like Romania and Lithuania were able to join?

 

They aren't part of the Euro.They have their own currencies.

[The Joker]

If Greece wasn't financially fit to join, how come countries like Romania and Lithuania were able to join?

 

because the UK needed cheap labour.

[ECCOnoob]

good on the Greeks for rejecting austerity.

 

Unlike us lot, who voted in another five years of it

 

Yes and when the shops run out of supplies and the banks stop people accessing their money and a massive proportion of the population are destitute will you still be saying "good on the Greeks"

 

They borrowed massive amounts of money with no intention of paying it back. They have been given bailout after bailout with no gratitude for what the ECB and EU have given them. They have been given extensions after extension and not giving a toss of any intention to comply. Simply, they have a government living in cloud cuckoo land who are so moronic they call a referendum on proposals, which were not even agreed. Now they have given a big two fingers to the proposals they have the nerve to ask for more borrowing.

 

Kick them out and stop them dragging the rest of the Euro down.

 

Im all for help to the people of Greece and help will quite rightly be given. But, as for the government, they can kiss it. They created this mess. They can sort it out.

Edited July 6, 2015 by ECCOnoob

[L00b]

You can't force a country to accept help when that country most manifestly doesn't want to help itself.

 

That country can now learn what it's like to run out of other people's money. Good luck and fair wind to them with the New Drachma, which is now inevitable, bar Divine Intervention.

 

As for how bad I feel for Greece, my give-a-f***-o-meter has been reaching record negative values since Sunday night. Let them eat cake.

[Guest sibon]

You can't force a country to accept help when that country most manifestly doesn't want to help itself.

 

That country can now learn what it's like to run out of other people's money. Good luck and fair wind to them with the New Drachma, which is now inevitable, bar Divine Intervention.

 

As for how bad I feel for Greece, my give-a-f***-o-meter has been reaching record negative values since Sunday night. Let them eat cake.

 

You might well be correct, but then again, you might not.

 

An exit from the Euro and a default won't rob Greece of any of its natural resources. If they maintain law and order, tourists will flock there as it will be incredibly cheap.

 

Meantime, the creditors will have nothing. I can't see them taking that option. My money is on a can kicking haircut.