Hmmm- maybe you should look at the real numbers – Ernie posted them before but the IIRC greek average age to stop working was significantly higher than Germany
FFS just flicked over to what used to be the Old Dame of documentary programming: Panorama, and it’s just as bad. How stupid are their target audience?
up[link – they have issues for sure but there is also a lot of myth. Ernie had some very good numbers that showed they did not retire early on the whole.
At the end of the day its not Greeces fault, its the EU for thinking that Greece would be ok in the Euro. Or at the very least why the Eu did not enforce their rules.
And yes the program was pretty crappy, but its got to break it down into easy chunks so numpties on cycling forums could understand it.
I dont understand the ‘going greek for a week’ part of this programme. couldn’t they have just done an unadulterated documentary on how corrupt the greek system is/was? it just seems as though they have added these people into the prog just so they can call it go greek for a week and really doesn’t add anything to it.
how do they know how big the Greek Shadow economy is? i’m sure it is as big as they claim (if not bigger) but how do they get seemingly accurate figuer on its size?
I am sorry the show failed to potray an accurate picture of Greece it just show one aspect it only contributes to propaganda against Greece . You cannot blame a whole nation for all the wrongdoings of EU.German companies have being involved in the biggest financial scandals in Greece. Nobody is innocent. The brits will not pay for the bail outs anyway!
It failed to show that the average person in Greece gets paid the lowest salaries from all the European counterparts. It forgot to mention that people in the private sector work for 700 euros around 10-12 hours aprox without lunch break. There are 2 sides on every story . Imagine if everyone overgeneralizes and claim i.e. on this basis that Brits are looters &thieves it we go back to August Riots. Besides in the UK we have paid taxes for many people who cheat to get benefit. The world people is not a perfect place we have to realize this and programmes such this do not contribute in anything but hatred!
Excuse me? While we’re not members of the Euro, we are founder members of the IMF, and as such have to make significant contributions to that fund should the IMF be called on to bail out those failing members of the Euro group.
The IMF is not a registered charity you know. Any loans it agrees to, it expects to be repaid with interest. And under conditions that it decides, which includes dictating government policy – irrespective of general election results.
Dreadful program. Managed about 10 minutes before I gave up.
Echoing Stoners point, this is embarrassing if it’s what passes as a documentary nowadays.
What you see in Greece is partly the result of having a 2 party system, where people vote for A so that B doesn’t get in, regardless of if A represents their real interests – so after a while you get a parliament of identikit droids intent on lining their own pockets and without a clue how to solve a problem, or the decency to do the right thing and resign.
After going to a wedding in Greece last month, I was amazed at the level of tax dodging.
The wedding was in good hotel and the bar bill, rooms and food for 60 guests had to be paid in cash, in 99% of petrol stations wouldn’t take cards only cash, all the restaurants I went to from the small roadside ones to posh upmarket jobs were all cash.
Basically everyone wasn’t paying tax, as they didn’t see the point.
I thought the Greek minister made a pretty good fist of things, came across really well. But then he got hit by a piece of classic Paxman, big haymaker.
Remember how the Greeks got to this point everyone. The last time they had an election Papandreou came in, his guys went through the books and they found a huge hole in the national finances, the previous lot knew they had spent way more than they could afford but wouldnt admit it.
Lets cook the books to get meet fiscal targets to get into the Euro. Spend spend spend like your in a Gordon Brown economy then demand money after money.
What a **** shit useless and pointless addition to a economic zone they were.
