Greece

[Spy Bee]

Does anyone here think that being able to retire at 50 on a state pension of 95% of your salary is sustainable?

Not in the context of corporate greed and inequality, absolutely not.

[PestiRed]

It's about an extra 32 euros on an outlay of 400 quid.Bear in mind how far that goes in Spain, a country where a bottle of perfectly drinkable wine costs 1 euro.If that kind of sum is insignificant to you, you can Paypal it over to me. I wouldn't know, I've never paid a dime of rent in my life, like all sensible people I decided to pay off my own mortgage rather than someone else's.

Well, if you insist, send me your PayPal email and I'll send you a euro for a bottle of wine. I'd do it for any meff.

 

I have to tell you though, Hungary is cheaper than Spain and here you're looking at £3 for anything really drinkable for anyone over the age of 15 that has a job. Perhaps a wine tasting course might be a good investment before you completely murder your tastebuds

[Strontium]

Well, if you insist, send me your PayPal email and I'll send you a euro for a bottle of wine. I'd do it for any meff.

 

I have to tell you though, Hungary is cheaper than Spain and here you're looking at £3 for anything really drinkable for anyone over the age of 15 that has a job. Perhaps a wine tasting course might be a good investment before you completely murder your tastebuds

 

And people accuse me of being condescending.

 

You are a horrible, horrible person.

[PestiRed]

And people accuse me of being condescending.You are a horrible, horrible person.

I know, but I'm lovable with it, x

[Ginny]

It's all about getting "responsible governance".

Which is why Lehman staff are going to prison and the company is being banned from trading.

Obviously.

Are Lehman staff going to prison? What about The Gorilla of Wall Street Dick Fuld?

[Stu Monty]

Does anyone here think that being able to retire at 50 on a state pension of 95% of your salary is sustainable?

Yes. It could well be.

 

It would require a complete remodelling of the global economy, the tax people pay in, the cost of living, the share if the benefits of technological advancements and the use of the resources available but it is not beyond the imagination to think that it, or somewhere towards it, could be achieved.

 

Why can you see it being possible to be paid a full wage for 50% of your current labour but you can't see a way to manage this?

 

Do you think that international capital and unscupulous right-wing politicians deliberately loading nation states up with bad debts then expecting the people to pay for it is sustainable?

[Thomo123]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/29/opinion/paul-krugman-greece-over-the-brink.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0

[Anubis]

If the Greeks vote 'no' and leave the EU, judging by the majority of measured opinion they will suffer some short term pain. However, by returning to their own currency, which will be weak, they'll be an attractive trading proposition in terms of purchase of Greek goods, which could help their economy back onto it's feet and improve employment.

 

Has to be better than enforced continued austerity.

[Nightcat]

Turns out, this Juncker cunt, has been appointed President of the E.U. without being elected by the people of Europe.

 

and you make fun of Somalia, you thick cunts.

[General Dryness]

Turns out, this Juncker cunt, has been appointed President of the E.U. without being elected by the people of Europe.

 

and you make fun of Somalia, you thick cunts.

 

Thats because they're mental. Have you ever been there?

[Section_31]

People having good pensions is sustainable, it just requires money to be more evenly spread than the world's 85 richest people having the same wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion. 

 

All this bollocks about unsustainability is exactly that - bollocks. 

 

My pension is inferior to someone who started in my company only two years before I did, those who start after me will be worse than mine, yet the company is owned by  two billionaires who live on their own island. It's not hard to see what's going on here. It's all venturing into shameless parody territory these days, and no, this doesn't make me Leon Trotsky. 

[cloggypop]

I hope they send the IMF a big fuck off horse.

[Section_31]

 

Go Greece lightning you don't give a fuck about debts

(Greece lighting, go greece lightning!)

Go Greece lightning you'd rather spend it on olive oil and bread

(Greece lighting, go greece lightning!)

Your tax returns are lean, your pensions are supreme 

You're Greece lighting. 

(Go go go go go go go go go!)

[Harry Squatter]

George and Angela's chippy on College Road in Crosby was immense. Also the old Bronte Cafe at the bottom of South Road.

[Section_31]

George and Angela's chippy on College Road in Crosby was immense. Also the old Bronte Cafe at the bottom of South Road.

 

Think the chippy in Woolton is run by Greeks, I was initially sceptical at their ability to produce good Chinese food but was pleasantly suprised. Fuck you farage. 

[VladimirIlyich]

28,000 euros, not pounds. €28,000 is about £20,000, which is some way below the average UK salary.

Point still applies for me.

[Jairzinho]

The UK median wage is £22k.

[PestiRed]

The UK median wage is £22k.

Not to mention the fact that the €28k is for every single citizen and not just wage-earners. It would be more useful to take the current median household income and divide it by the average number of people in a household.

 

£23,972 / 2.3 = £10,422 or €14,699 - just over half of the wealth generated per citizen at the current (unusually high) currency rate

[JagSquared]

Think the chippy in Woolton is run by Greeks, I was initially sceptical at their ability to produce good Chinese food but was pleasantly suprised. Fuck you farage.

What the fuck is this? It's either a Chinese or a chippy. I don't condone dual establishments they never are able to do either properly.

 

If it's a chippy it's a chippy. A Chinese is a separate entity in my world.

[Section_31]

What the fuck is this? It's either a Chinese or a chippy. I don't condone dual establishments they never are able to do either properly.

 

If it's a chippy it's a chippy. A Chinese is a separate entity in my world.

 

Most chippies are chinese chippies? Who are you? An unholy marriage twixt Marty McFly and Claude Greengrass? 

[SasaS]

How come economic powerhouses Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania can balance their finances in the "economic straightjacket" of euro, and Greece can't? Why is it never the Greeks' fault? Right-wing conspiracy against the leftist government, greedy banks, Wall Street, hedge funds, Germans, they all sat down together and decided, yes, let's fuck Greece up.

[Section_31]

How come economic powerhouses Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania can balance their finances in the "economic straightjacket" of euro, and Greece can't? Why is it never the Greeks' fault? Right-wing conspiracy against the leftist government, greedy banks, Wall Street, hedge funds, Germans, they all sat down together and decided, yes, let's fuck Greece up.

 

Even the way it's reported on takes the piss. 

 

Pictures of people queueing outside cash machines (not a lot of them queueing outside free clinics and food banks though), with one reporter saying if Greece refused to pay back the IMF it would join the likes of Somalia and Botswana or some shit on that list. 

 

They get reporters in Athens who come out with loads of spooky talk like 'we're in uncharted territory' etc etc. The whole thing is designed to build you up into a frenze of panic of worst case scenario thinking that comes from not toeing the line, then when you do toe the line evertthing eases off a bit and is only slightly shitter than it was before. 

 

Same everhwhere, from the way comanies restructure to the way countries do. Panic, chaos, followed by controlled reorganisation into something more maliable. 

[Bjornebye]

Chinese chippies are normally shit at both Chinese and chippy teas. Not always of course but mostly. They need to be kept separate. If I go for a chippy tea I want to go to an exclusive chippy place. I don't want spring rolls on my sausage dinner you fucking mutt. Nor do I want a battered sausage in my sweet & sour chicken hong kong style. I wouldn't buy a pair of shorts at the car wash would I. I'm hungry now you cunts.

[Jairzinho]

How come economic powerhouses Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania can balance their finances in the "economic straightjacket" of euro, and Greece can't? Why is it never the Greeks' fault? Right-wing conspiracy against the leftist government, greedy banks, Wall Street, hedge funds, Germans, they all sat down together and decided, yes, let's fuck Greece up.

 

None of those countries you mention had the enormous banking sector Greece had that was bailed out, and therefore the effects of austerity, whilst still shit, were nowhere near as damaging as it was in Greece.

 

Even with that said, Slovenia, for example, like us, has doubled it's debt since 2008. Comparing the tiny Baltic states to Greece does seem largely irrelevant, but even so, they aren't exactly bona fide success stories. Unless of course "balanced finances" means higher unemployment and lower output than previously.

 

There was no specific conspiracy against Greece, there didn't need to be. For a multitude of reasons their economy was damaged by the crippling troika led austerity program even more than most. The people had enough of this neo-colonial shit and decided to elect a left wing government to tell them to fuck off. Because of which, the Troika will want to make an example of them so as not to give anyone else any ideas about pursuing plans which don't suit their racketeering.

[cloggypop]