Europe's emergency aid to Greece, A dual disappointment

I've heard that there are now Greeks hanging around in stations in cities like Munich: They are fleeing the bad conditions in hopes of some better prospects. They travel all over Europe with the last of their savings - no way back.

Fiona already replied, but I want to expand the criticism... Because this analysis is exactly what is dangerous about the situation in Europe.

As Fiona already pointed out: this is false.

They are firing people en mass to "solve" the crisis now. Skyrocketing unemployment (near 20%) is a sure way to get at a smaller workforce.

Well, much of Greece's income is from trade ports and tourism, that is true. Large parts of its limited production industries are in the hands of foreign companies - Greece has been under the sway of the free market ideology for a long time, just like the rest of us: the nation emerged from the WW2 turmoil very late due to a civil war, so it picked up its economy somewhat later than others. These other nations' companies wanted access to Greek labour and resources, and they got it. Profits from those ventures flow back to Germany and the UK and wherever else these companies are based, and if the workforce starts demanding too much, the companies freely move their industry to some other poorer state. Then came the 80's, with a drive towards financialisation. Again, Greece was urged (and its regime more than willing) to get in on this fad, just like the rest of Europe. They took on huge loans, just like everyone else, to make lots of "free" money, which indeed worked for a while, just like everywhere else. But without the reserves and real economic means of the stronger nations, and an economy heavily dependent on trade, it should have been no surprise that they took the first hits as soon as the recession set in. But mind you: they have done nothing wrong in economic terms. The post-war Colonels who ran Greece listened and pleased their corporate backers. After that, the economic technocrats filled their pockets, just like they should in a "healthy economy". Well, that turned out to be unsustainable, and now they are in a mess. Who's to pay for that? Well, the answer is oddly enough not the people who actually have the money to pay for it. That would be too easy, probably. When we are asked what the Greeks spent all their money on, we shouldn't look at the rich folk, or the companies that made fortunes. We're supposed to look for all that cash in the wallets of ordinary people. Well, they don't have much money, but they have other things we can take from them:

Yes, we can slave these people! That will recover the money the rich banksters and international corporate swine stole from them.

Oh, but they did stuff, all right. They made sure their corporate backers and cronies were helped to a fair serving of public money. For example, gambling taxes went directly to Goldman Sachs. That was one of the schemes they employed to make sure the loans they got in return did not show up in the official accounts of debt: for it was a trade, not an actual loan. What did they need all that Goldman Sachs money for? Well, to buy guns and submarines and ammunition from Northern Europe. Lots of it. They can't use these things for anything, but it pleases the arms manufacturers. These are short sighted politics that do nobody any good, but don't think the people are informed about this. The media in Greece just happens to be strongly privatised. And they are fervently fuelling the idea that it's the Greek workers to be blamed for electing corrupt politicians for decades.

The banks seem to be getting most of that money. It's certainly not ending up in the wallets of those people who are being asked to slave extra hard. Even though billions and billions of euros flow to Greece, they see their pensions fall and work loads rise; their public services slashed along with their jobs. We shouldn't be talking about a hole that has been dug. This hole is a trap! Their politicians grasping at straws to stay afloat, but they are at the mercy of private financial institutions and their predatory public helpers in the form of the ECB and IMF. And everybody on the streets know it. But where can they go? Their politicians are abandoning them (which is not unusual), and now they also get raped by the IMF and their damning demands, as if they are some 3rd world country. And instead of a bit of mercy, they get painted as beggars and thieves by the international community.


Again, Greece is slashing its workforce because of redundancy cuts and efficiency cuts and what not. That is not a policy aimed at making people work: it's one where people starve with no alternative. I actually respect the decision not to send aid: it ends up in banks anyway - there are better ways to waste your money. I would prefer they send all that money into Greece's Red Cross for example or bottom-up organizations that actually help the economy of Greece directly. But I understand also that Finland is currently under control of a strongly Nationalist government. That usually means it's not going to help any other nation, because all others are inferior, and there is no such thing as helping yourself by helping others. I don't believe for a second that is true, and I think it would be a shame to let Greece's economy tank fatally, but I seem to be an exception in that.


Almost, except economic crisis make people lose their job irrespective of their desire to work. If, subsequently, they can't pay their (medical) bills, food, and shelter, they have much reason to be angry, irrespective of their desire to work - but especially in those that want to contribute and aren't allowed.


Nobody prefers to be dependent on others. This "Finnish pride" also exists in the genetically identical folk in Greece. The only ones you hear begging for that sweet, free money, are the banks and corporations. They have no pride - they are abstract concepts.


They aren't. They are nowhere near enough. What they should be doing now is build an economy, get people into jobs, "buckle down". Instead, they are playing financial games with immeasurable amounts of cash.

Well, that depends on whether or not they will have a political system at the end of this that is responsive to their actual population, and that connects to the actual economy of those people. The same goes for all other European nations. Because many of them are walking the same path of austerity, bailouts, and servitude to corporations. Will we learn from Greece? If so, we might be able to rebuild a European economy stronger than ever. I'll leave the "if not" open.

If they are saved by the bailouts, there seems to be nobody to blame, and the methods of aid were right. But it won't work. You can see it doesn't in the statistics as they develop, and you can predict it on the basis of all the other similar experiments the IMF has done with "saving" countries (for purposes of comparing, it is convenient that they do the very same trick in every country they ravage). Also, just a bit of common sense will get you quite far into looking in the future in this case: you just can't build an economy on repaying banks for bets they lost, while firing your workforce and selling off all your assets. It's a suicide mission, and they will need bail-out after bail-out, until all our corporations are out of there, and we stop caring and pretend Greece isn't Europe.


We agree. But the rest of your analysis has strong traces of justifying attacks on the ordinary people in Greece, while keeping well clear of any real solutions: It results in a hands-off reaction, in the process demonizing an entire population, and allowing their country to go to rot at the hands of forces that are sometimes in our control. But when you accept that they deserve their suffering, you don't need to look further. Which is just what the big guys want. And also, it detaches their cause from your own: for surely, you did not deserve anything they are going through. While actually, you can see a lot of parallels between the Greek situation, and ours (maybe not Finland, I don't know much about there).