On Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:10:36 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:
On Sep 21, 9:48*pm, F. George McDuffee gmcduf...@mcduffee-
associates.us wrote:
Someone must pay
snip
Unka' George
snip
So yes all those things have to be paid for, but the total wage packet
for public workers should be about equal to the total wages in the
private sector.
snip
We can afford all the government we need, but can not afford
government that gets paid more than the private sector.
Dan
====================
Where this is all heading. Note that Greece appears to be
unique only in that it is first.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/...787847,00.html
09/23/2011
'We Won't Pay'
Greece's Middle Class Revolt against Austerity
By Ferry Batzoglou and Jörg Diehl in Athens
Small business owners in Greece have long been the backbone
of the economy and reliable taxpayers in a country where tax
evasion is rampant. That, though, is now changing.
Self-employed workers like Angelos Belitsakos have had
enough of rising taxes and have begun to revolt.
snip
The people who could ultimately give Greece the coup de
grace are not the kind to throw stones or Molotov cocktails,
and they have yet to torch any cars. Instead, they are
people like 60-year-old beverage distributor Angelos
Belitsakos, people who might soon turn into a real problem
for the economically unstable country. Feeling cornered, he
and other private business owners want to go on the
offensive. But instead fighting with weapons, they are using
something much more dangerous. They are fighting with money.
Belitsakos is a short, slim and alert man who lives in the
middle-class Athenian suburb of Holargos. He is also the
physical and spiritual leader of a movement of business
people in Greece that is recruiting new members with growing
speed. While Greece's government is desperately trying to
combat its ballooning budget deficit by raising taxes and
imposing new fees, people like Belitsakos are putting their
faith in passive resistance.
The group's slogan is as simple as it is stoic: "We Won't
Pay."
Working 12-Hour Days, Seven Days a Week
This business owners' absolute refusal to pay any taxes
resembles an uprising of the ownership class, rather than
the working class, a rebellion of the self-employed business
owners who have long been the backbone of Greek society.
These are not the people who weaseled their way into
Greece's oversized civil service; these are people who put
their money in the private sector, working 12-hour days,
seven days a week. Or so Belitsakos says.
Standing in his small store, Belitsakos makes a sweeping
gesture and says that the people in his movement no longer
have a choice. "The state will kill us," he says. "We're
acting in self-defense." Then he starts to do the math. Over
the last two years, his sales have massively shrunk as 60 of
the tavernas and restaurants he used to make deliveries to
have terminated their contracts with him. At the same time,
the government has raised the value-added tax (VAT) twice
while imposing a never-ending series of new fees. He
mentions the €300 ($406) one-time fee for the self-employed,
a two-percentage-point boost in the VAT, a €180 solidarity
levy for the unemployed and a property tax that is "easily a
few hundred euros every year."
snip
Belitsakos calls them "charatzi," a word from Ottoman times
that can perhaps best be translated as "loot" or "compulsory
levy." The term is meant to indicate taxes levied
arbitrarily and without justification, such as the tithe
once paid to feudal lords. "But I can't and won't pony up.
It's wrong," Belitsakos says. "Don't you understand?"
snip
Editorial comment by UG --
Another citizen fails to see why they should be pauperized
for the benefit of the supranational banks, even as
increasing numbers of the poor, particularly the old and
students are driven to eat from dumpsters.
http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/...ns-new-make-do
Eating from bins – the new make do
19 September 2011 Athens
On 19 September, the Greek government announced new cuts
designed to convince its partners to hand over the 6th
tranche of international aid. Meanwhile in the streets of
Athens, more and more people are searching for a cheap way
to feed themselves.
Giorgos Pouliopoulos
Until now, the phenomenon was unknown in this country, but
with the economic crisis, we have seen more and more people
searching bins for food. In the past, only tramps and Roma
rooted through bins. Then came the arrival of the Asian and
African migrants who sifted through rubbish, heaping their
finds into supermarket trolleys. Today Greeks are also
looking through bins. Many of them are looking for things to
sell, but others are searching for food.
For 25 years, Iranian born Samat Eftehar has owned a tavern
in Exarchia. "It is still a lively little neighbourhood. I
have known most of the people here for years. Some of them
who were already on low salaries have had their wages cut.
They are decent people, and now they are forced to eat from
bins," he says.
Sometimes, he gives away food to needy people he knows. "I
don’t think we have seen the last scene in this tragedy yet.
Things are getting worse. There’s a real famine,” insists
Samat Eftehar. “I don’t mean a famine where there is nothing
to eat, like in Africa. I’m talking about a famine where
people can’t even afford to buy meat once a month."
snip
--
Unka' George
"Gold is the money of kings,
silver is the money of gentlemen,
barter is the money of peasants,
but debt is the money of slaves"
-Norm Franz, "Money and Wealth in the New Millenium"