Continuing on our theme of trying to answer the question: "Why the hell is Europe so affluent?",
my roomie G. Smaragdakis forwarded this
article to moi. This is in line with my earlier posts,
here and
here.
What I found distressing and indeed a sign of things to come is the bit where locals are selling their land to make ends meet. This way, soon most Greeks will be displaced by wealthy Europeans and Asians, and after that there will be land riots.
But almost all such articles do not address one issue which I'm certain would be a cause for concern - the burgeoning credit card debt of the local junta. From my greek contacts, they claim most people put almost everything on their credit cards. Shouldn't this be a cause for concern?
Atleast the credit cards help explain why regular people can afford 9 Euro coffees.
Blogging from HKG
First off, I wasn't aware that
such a law even existed. Its a standard ploy - incentivize adoption of a technology (Solar Power) which most people are dumb to consider, even though it'll help them in the long run.
But if the article is true, this is indeed disheartening - kill off incentives and subsidies.
And I find some arguments for killing the incentives specious at the very least.
First of all, why should one not consider the rising fossil fuels costs? As well as declining costs of solar power? Fine, there is a severe
shortage of silicon, but even considering that, with the tons of funding going into renewable sources of energy, solar power is bound to become more efficient and cheaper.
And of course the fundamental point is - folks, pay up now! Else your children will not have a planet to live in!!
If you want to protest. atleast do your research first.
Greeks apparently not too happy about DT buying their national telecom carrier.
That's fine, everyone has the right to complain and protest.
But at least
burn the right flags! Instead of burning Belgian flags!
Goes to show woeful knowledge of geography is not limited to the
US alone..
Living with Europeans, one gets involved in the going-ons of different countries.
This time, it is Italy (thanks to my Italian roommate) by way of this farcical
almost-theonion piece.
The insider knowledge is that the Mafia are behind this, since they control the waste-management business (according to my room-mate, they control everything but thats for another day).
Which begs the question - why doesn't trash affect the mafia as well? What does the mafia gain by letting trash pile on to the streets? I'm sure there is a fancy economics paper on this..
As my room-mate would say - this is a G8 and a first-world nation.
Take for instance, this seemingly
innocuous article.
Greece has a problem, so they want to solve it. The telling (and indeed loaded)
statement is in the last paragraph.
".. EU's smallest and poorest nations..".
I know many greeks, and imho, this is not true. Anyone who can afford 8 Euros coffee ain't poor (ok so I'm adopting an absolutist stance - bite me).
More interestingly, its the craven excuse given by the officials - this is what I find makes most of us similar - the excuses we give. For anything in life.
I can easily imagine a GOI operative giving a similar excuse for refugees from Bangladesh etc.
So an uncle of mine forwarded this
article, knowing of my impending shift to Europe.
While the article does not reveal anything new to me (since I live and hang out with Europeans ),
there are some facets which intrigue me to no end and I have not been able to figure these out:
a) The proletariat are generally paid low wages relatively and inflation is high. For instance in Athens you would spend close to 8 euros for a coffee. So how can people continue living the high life? Everywhere I went in Europe a couple of years ago, and even recently in Barcelona - people are living it up! 8 Euros per coffee? No problem! A semi decent dinner for 20 euros? de nada!
Extensive traveling, eating out and generally indulging in good debauchery all this takes money (for the most part), and where are the plebs getting this money? From credit cards? In which
case, there will soon be a large credit crisis I would not want to be a part of.
b) Rental rates - why are rents so bloody high in most cities in Europe? One can't rely on tourists alone.
c) And yet one hears of indiscriminate spending on research etc. , which of course is good for me, but surely something is wrong. Is a revolution around the corner? Who'll be the first against the wall in that case?
