Reflections on the Economic Situation in Greece - 16 May 2010 - By: ootii - 5 Comments
I came back from Greece several days ago but missed this. I hadn't been for a long time, not since they joined the Eurozone in fact. A lot of things were better than they were when I was last there but the locals didn't believe me. Their impression was that things are getting worse and worse. The cost of living in Athens is quite high, and more than 50% of the population lives there. The main "industries" are tourism and agriculture, neither of which generate very well paid jobs. According to the sales guy in Marks and Spencer, who seemed quited depressed, middle range wages (schoolteachers, police) are around 700 Euros a month, or around $13k per annum in the US, while the costs of goods was substantially more. A cup of coffee and a donut cold set you back $10.

I took an early morning walk downtown on the 1st of May. People variously described this day as a holiday and a strike. The presidential guards were in white, which proves it was a holiday, but almost everything was closed so it did look more like a strike. I counted three communist parties. Activists from the main, historical group, the KKE were on the street leafleting. I spoke to one of them outside the University of Athens library. He told me that the government were cutting "two wages" a year. I'm not sure how this is applied. I asked how that worked and he said that they would no longer get their Christmas and Easter bonuses. It sounded like they get an extra month salary at Christmas and Easter but I was not sure. That could mean as much as a 14% wage cut.

One of the things I did was to visit the War Museum. This is a museum run by the Greek Army but really a history of modern Greece, beginning with the independence movement in the 1820s. The British were instrumental in supporting Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire and after successfully wresting Greece from the Turks, the British proceeded to regard it as their own colony. I'm not sure when they left or under what circumstances. A civil war in the 1930 between Communists and someone else fed directly into occupation by Germany, Italy and Bulgaria in WWII and incredible suffering. After the war a republic was established. This was overthrown in the 70s by the army and Greece disappeared under military dictatorship. This part of its history is really much like that of Spain. This is a country with a strong national identity and sense of value, much underrated and much abused. They probably should never have joined the Eurozone. Considering their long difficult path to independence, it is surprising that they would so easily relinquish that to the big boys in Europe - not even the English would submit to the Euro.

For ordinary people, the only advantage of Economic Union is the ability to go and find work elsewhere in Europe. This is only a theoretical possibility though. In practical terms, it is very difficult to move around Europe looking for work. For this, you need to be very highly trained, in a key industry, and able to speak the local language to a very high degree of proficiency. Given this level of skill, you would get a visa anyway and don't need to be an EC citizen.

Oh, the other advantage is that there is no longer a Greek Citizen line at passport control. Greeks have to wait in line with European tourists to get into their own country.

If you've never been there, go sometime. It's a really interesting place.