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Greek woes


cleanerg6e
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I was watching the telly this morning and all the speculators were having a grand old time forecasting the situation in Greece. For them it's like all their birthdays and Christmases have come at once. I got the impression they thought that if Greece defaults on it's repayments and has to exit the EU then Spain, Ireland, Portugal and maybe Italy and France would do the same. That would leave Germany, Belgium and Luxemburg as the EU. The German Chancellor is supposedly forecasting doom and gloom for the whole of Europe. She obviously hasn't seen Yes Prime Minister for once you start interfering in the affairs of a foreign country your on a very slippery slope. She has certainly been doing a lot of interfering in Greece. My opinion is if Greece exits the EU then so be it. I wonder if the printing presses are working overtime in Greece printing the old currency of the Drachma in readiness for the exit. If governments of these countries insist on living well beyond their means without any hope of ever paying the money back then their economies will collapse. These gifts of more money from Germany and France only delays the inevitable. It's the ordinary Greeks I feel sorry for as they will pay the most for this god awful mess. The European Ideal does not work. In theory yes in practice no. Too many different tax collecting systems and no independent monitor of who is borrowing and spending too much. As the parliament is in Brussels all the taxes should have gone their for the full member states and then the money could have been distributed to each member country with an independent watchdog keeping a very strict account of who gets what and how much they get. But it's run by politicians and they'd never agree to any of that hence the current situation.

Watching the news again this morning they had the head of the Reserve Bank of Australia on and he said basically what I wrote.

Roy.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have to agree. I read a lot of stuff about the poor people, well they were working people but now have no jobs, having to cope. Greece is a mess. I think not borrowing is probably a better deal for them.

Italy isn't in much better shape. My parents met in Italy in 50's I lived there in the 60's. Much humbler times. Italians have gotten to be pretty snobby. I love the scenery and my friends, but all the money for fancy clothes and fancy things had to come from somewhere and they've also been spending more than they pulled in for decades. Now it's time to balance the budgets a bit.

But the USA is in a similar situation. I know a lot of people who do not have jobs these days, or took lower paying jobs.

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I know what you mean Griff, here in Australia it is said that our economy is in first class shape. But if you take a closer look all is not well. In the mining sectors things are going ahead in leaps and bounds but only because China and India are buying our coal and iron ore in huge quantities. Manufacturing is practically dead here with China manufacturing nearly all of what was once made here. Our dollar is around parity with the US dollar and is very expensive to buy for tourists who want to come here and tourism is a big part of our economy. Our banks are in first class shape and continually record profits in the billions of dollars. Many companies have just moved overseas so a the unemployment figures are going up. Full time jobs are going and casual jobs are rising. But here on a casual job working for an agency you get no sick leave or holidays. So if you get something like an Asian flu you don't get paid at all. On council the council has it's own casuals who get paid a much higher rate and although they don't get sick leave they do get holidays. All casuals are entitled to Workers Compensation and employer funded superannuation. I was lucky when I started on council as I started as a full time employee due to the nature of my work no one else wanted to do it either full time or casual. In India we're called 'untouchables' and are often treated as such by Indians and Pakistani. We are are the lowest of the low in their eyes and must be treated as such, even though we probably make more money and work far less hours than they do. I'm supposed to work an 8 hour day but in the last 10 years ( god has it been that long) the longest I have worked is 5 hours and I always go home for my lunch break of 30 minutes to 1.1/2 hours. Most days I only work 2-3 hours but still get paid for the 8 hours The big boss doesn't mind and often gives us a free BBQ. Even the Mayor joined us one day and brought a carton of beer him.

Roy.

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Are you sure you can stomach it? I see some pretty horrific sites and sometimes I have to go into ladies toilets when there are ladies in there. I always announce before I enter but once at a local festival there was no reply and I found a huge white female sitting on the loo with huge white cellulite thighs with the cubicle door wide open holding a used blood dripping tampon in one hand and a few perforated sheets of toilet paper in the other and all I could smell was dead rotten fish.

Some in the council head office think we have an easy time. So I once emailed them a whole series of photo I and my workmates took of what some people do with there No.2s. Those people in head office were none too pleased to receive these photos in their lunch break. When asked to explain my action I said 'if we can stomach these sites everyday why can't you.

Roy.

PS I hope I haven't offended anyone even females who read this forum.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I was watching a program on the TV here last night called Four Corners. It was telling what was wrong with the EU and why Europe is in such dire straits. The Germans decided to work hard pay their taxes and live frugally. Their was a bloke on their who is the head bloke of the company Karcher who make high pressure cleaning products. He said that you don't need a new Mercedes Benz to be happy. He also said if he couldn't afford a new car with cash he bought a second hand one with cash.

An Italian taxi driver said that the Italians had 'bent' the rules to suit themselves and with a large proportion of the population not paying any income tax plus restrictive work practices explains why Italy is in the mess it's in.

The Greek government lied it's ass off to get into the EU, continued to lie it's ass off once they were in and are now crying fowl that they have to reign in spending.

The Spanish banks are owned by local authorities and for over ten years have been on a lending spree, in fact so much so that now there are more newly completed empty housing units in Spain than there are in the United States.

One of the criteria for getting into the EU as a full member state was that your level of debt was only allowed to be 3% of Gross Domestic Product.(GDP) but the Germans and French as the most powerful in the EU had that rule scrapped which allowed countries with a dubious financial accounting system to become full member states.

The Republic of Ireland had the lowest growth of all EU member states when it became a full member and was given hugely massive loans which unfortunately they were unable to repay which is why the people of Ireland are now in it up to their necks.

An EU official stated that the EU would only work if they had had one currency,one state,one taxation system but as none of the member countries would agree to that or the people of those countries the EU ideal was doomed to fail from the outset.

All these stimulus and bail out packages are just doing one thing and that is delaying the inevitable collapse.

Roy.

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Well personally I would let Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland default. These countries are currently milking the German cow dry. She may have been chock a block full of milk to begin with but she'll soon be empty. Maybe the British politicians weren't totally stupid after all in rejecting the Euro. On the program it said that Greece is in debt to the tune of 300 billion Euros, Italy is FAR worse at 2 Trillion Euros and that they were way in over their heads when they joined the EU. Unfortunately dear old blighty won't escape and know doubt no long term lessons will be learnt from this awful mess.

So massive unemployment and much lower living standards are going to be the 'norm' in Europe for some time to come.

People over here are the same. A lot of houses in the UK are duplexes but over here one English duplex is one house with a 1/4 acre of land. My brothers house cost him and his wife 125,000 pounds with 7 acres of land 20 years ago. They still haven't paid it off.

There was a girl on the news here who was complaining about the attitude of the banks who cancelled her two credit cards both with a $10,000 dollar limit, as she blown both of them. But she was paying the money back at $50 a week, $25 on each card but missed one week as she bought a pair of $500 shoes.

I worked two jobs to pay my house off and I paid it off 5 years ago and it was a cheap house at 40,000 pounds. :D

Roy.

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Credit cards, are the worst thing that ever came around. Credit on tick and then they want more but don't want to pay it back. Unfortunetly that is a sign of the younger generation today. Gone are the good old days of when you wanted something you saved like mad until you had the money to buy it outright. Being an OLD FART I still go by those principles that if I can't afford it then I go without, and normally a couple of months down the line realise that what use would it have been to me in the first place. If I really need it then I put a depost on it to secure its retention and then pay for it using CASH, yes hard cash, I think they call it MONEY in old terms. Not a bloody credit card. Don't even own a credit card now, but when I had a holiday in the USA I had to get a credit card. Damn nuisance but an evil necesscity, and you can guess what I did, YES I maxed it out big time and now paying for it dearly

Ian

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I must be an old fart too as I hate owing money to anyone. Over here my bank sent me an application for a credit card and I put the form in the recycling bin. I got a call a few weeks later asking why I hadn't returned the form. I told them I have a debit card and had no use for a credit card. I was asked what do you do if you want to buy something and don't have enough money to purchase it. I told them I save up for it. Take my car for instance, it cost me $32,000 and I paid cold hard cash. If I'd put a deposit on it of say $7,000 and got a loan for $25,000 and I took five years to pay that loan off, then I would end up paying close to $45,000 to the bank for a car with an initial purchase price of $32,000 and in 5 years would be worth around $20,000. Less than what I borrowed. So yes I think like an old fart when it comes to money, and I'm better of for it.

I'll pop off now and get my Zimmer walking frame and extra comfortable shoes. :lol:

When I think of whats happened in Europe, well pictures speak louder than words :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

Roy.

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