Ελλάδα Όχι Κράτος Σκλάβος GREECE: NO TO SLAVE STATE

Μεγάλο προβλέψιμο στιν Ελλάδα (Big problem in Greece)

Γερμανοί κάνομε τιν Ελλάδα ένα κράτος σκλάβων

The Greek government was forced to take on an enormous debt burden (of almost $300 billion dollars) in installments beginning in 2007 after the global economic collapse, first centered in the U.S. housing and mortgage market. Most of the money came from Eurozone investors , with smaller amounts from the IMF, European Central Bank, and smaller amounts from Greek Banks.

Back in January when the new, left-leaning Syriza party, led by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras took over. The new government made it known that they thought that it was near impossible for Greece to pay back the enormous debt, which at that time represented more than 180% of the Greek nation's GDP. They were correct. But letting their intentions be known to their creditors may have had grave consequences.

Almost every economist knows instinctively that you can not grow an economy by reducing cash flow. But after the Great Recession years of 2007 that was what the Greek governmenτ did. They were forced to borrow money to pay debts. But the Eurozone investors and politicians who loaned the money, had other ideas. They were fixated not on growing an economy but remodeling the Greek economy to their own conceepts. As a consequence, they insisted that the Greeks cut expenses and reduce their budget deficit. These programs of economic reform were termed: "austerity programs". To get the desperately needed cash the Greeks had to implement the austerity plans sent down to them by the German master planners. But austerity measures made it impossible for the already weakened economy to recover. Restricting pensions, cutting salaries, reducing the number of government workers, raising taxes, closing down municipal facilities, cutting pay and overtime, cutting out bonus money and forcing people to work longer for less money, all were demanded from the Central European bankers and German politicians before they would release needed loan money. All of these policies reduced cash in the hands of the citizens and lowered demand for goods and services. This was a sure way to spiral down into a deeper recession. Each desperate loan request came with a requirement for further austerity measures. The Greeks were caught up in a vicious cycle of loans and austerity measures which only intensified the depressed state of the economy and made it necessary for another round of loan requests and further austerity measures. The German plan was no way to help a country out of an economic downturn. The fear of deficit spending in the German psyche was being acted out on Greek victims to the detriment of an the Greek economy and the well being of an entire nation. The meticulous, efficient Germanic methods of bookkeeping ostensibly instituted to pry the Greeks out of an economic valley instead managed to dig them into a massive, Hibbing-Minnesota-size open pit mine and there to bury the Greeks and Greece. I am sad to say, their methods remind me too much of the policies of the Germans of the last century in their interactions with other ethnic and religious minorities.

There were a total of seven (7) austerity packages that previous Greek governments had to accept before receiving bailout funds. The first loan and austerity package of February 2010 was for a loan of 80 billion euros. It required a freeze in the salaries of all government workers, a 10% cut in bonuses, cuts to overtime, and the restriction on work-related travel. The second package (March 2010) included more cuts to salaries, a doubling (then quadrupling)of the VAT tax, and increased taxes on imported cars. The economy did not respond positively to these early measures, the economy did not expand and the Greek government soon needed more loan money. The third austerity package (May 2010) required the privatization of 4000 public owned companies, more controls on salaries of public workers, a 3% cut of pay for utility workers, a decrease in the number of designated municipalities from 1000 to 400, limits to pensioner's pay, increase in the retirement age from 60 to 65, changes in the laws governing overtime-pay and lay-offs. The fourth austerity package (June 2011) took place during a period of discontent with many strikes and demonstrations. The new austerity package required raising 50 billion euros from selling off government property, and among other changes, and higher taxes (again) now on those earning more than the modest annual salary of 8,000 euros. Further, it called for a decreased of pension payments of up to 14% of pre 2007 amounts! It added a new tax on any and all structures. The owners of any structure, a home, barn, shed or garage was to pay a "structure tax" which would be paid by way of the owner's electricity bill. And due to the more common demonstrations and strikes, the German overlords demanded that Greek laws permitting collective bargaining be weakened or rescinded. The Parliament was forced to comply with all these demands. The results of these massive changes and increased taxes was not positive. At the close of this period, instead of savings and budget surplus, government revenue had gone down 2 billion euros and spending went up 3 billion euros. Some government officials expressed the idea that the austerity measures were not working and were "irrational". They were right.

But the Greek Parliament and its German, Danish and Dutch masters did not care about rational or irrational. They were bent on squeezing blood out of the dry, limestones and marbles of the Greek lands. Three more loans and austerity packages more forced on the Greek Parliament and duly agreed to which were more of the same and with much the same effects.

By 2011, the Greek GDP had its worst annual decline, falling by 7%. By 2012, the GDP had dropped 17% from its level of 2008. While at about the same time, the seasonally adjusted industrial output fell by nearly 30% lower than it was in 2005. More than 100,000 Greek companies had gone bankrupt by this date. And by July 2012 unemployment had surged to an unprecedented 25%, while More than half of Greek youths who wanted employment were without jobs. The suicide rate, once the lowest in Europe, increased by 40%. Twenty percent of the shops in historic central Athens were closed and boarded up as of 2012, and about 400,000 residents of central Athens were visiting a soup kitchen daily. Twenty thousand (20,000) people were homeless and slept rough At night in corrugated boxes in dark. Athenian alleyways. A UN official cautioned the Greek Parliament just prior to the the imposition of the fourth austerity package, that its implementation could potentially pose a violation of human rights under the UN charter. The effects on Greece was that the global Great Recession which had by this time played out its course in the rest of the world, continued on unabated in Greece. And due to the intervention of the German, Dutch and Danish bankers and German politicians there it grew into the magnitude of the Great Depression of 1930's. This tragedy was not necessary. The collapse of the economy began as a global recession but became a man made economic depression in Greece.

The story is not over yet. The new prime minister, Alexis Tsipras and his government have tried to formulate a compromise with the Germans which would extend and modulate their payments, ease up on austerity and permit the Greeks a period of time to grow their economy, yet keep Greece in the Eurozone. Tsipras tipped his hand early...he wanted to stay in the zone, but was asking for a helping hand. He was looking to ease the suffering of his people. But as each fraught bargaining session ended, the Greek representatives had to give ground and accept more of the same onerous austerity. The German creditors held their ground and even appear to have moved the goal posts as the Tsipras team came closer and closer to agreement. The Germans seem determined not to find a middle ground but to discredit and undermine the Syriza government and its youthful leader who was elected to oppose the irrational and impossible situation they had imposed on Hellenes. Perhaps they would rather see Greece with a new, more amenable government, a government which will more readily do the bidding of the German masters, muzzle the justified discontent of the citizens, and continue to squeeze euros from the poor and hard working Greeks to line the pockets of wealthy German bankers.

My neighboring next-door state of New Hampshire has a motto...."Live Free or Die"...I have seen it often on license plates on our country roads....but...as I write this now, I can now fully understand what that line really means.

The Greeks must decide to live free, or forever be under the lash of the Germans as a κράτος σκλάβος.