What the future holds for Greece

The article notes in very grim tones that since Greece applied for support things have been spiraling out of control, stressing that “the only real and tangible task of such a body (the cost of which is paid entirely by the Greek state) is to cover up the wrong-doings of the European Commission services as regards Greece over the past decades.”

Greece is described as a “huge prison,” where “ordinary people are trapped by civil servants, as corruption in the government services is horizontal, vertical and woefully systemic. Subsequently, civil servants are trapped by politicians in a patron-client relationship. Almost every civil servant has a political patron who, in return for his vote and the votes of his or her family members, is allowed to keep the post.”

Politicians, who are “the patrons of the administration, are prisoners of a few families of perennial oligarchs, owners of the Greek cartels which include bankers, industrialists, contractors and energy magnates.”

Greece is seen as the most cartelised market in Europe, and as described cannot be otherwise as oligarchs are the puppet masters of politicians “keeping Greece tight in the Middle Ages and, in practice, are the owners of the Nation.”

The nefarious role of cartels is highlighted, with banks that have been supported by billions remain investor “totally unfriendly,” while Greeks still pay twice as much for milk as Germans, while receiving ridiculously low wages.

The article notes that food has cheapened, not in terms of pricing, but in quality, while charges for services by individuals have plummeted, as of course have wages.

Taxation provides no basis for stability, as taxes change “almost every week!”

In attempting to answer the question of how long this will last the article notes that “one good thing is that catastrophe is rather unavoidable,” noting that if the crisis is not defused the alternative will be extensive social unrest, that could start with mass social disobedience and riots.

What is worse, according to the author, the “catastrophe could come in the form of a modern civil war,” noting that although “many EU member states do not even know what a civil war looks like, Greece has had two and both were serious.”

On the optimistic side, “no matter what the future holds, in the long run Greece will certainly survive,” but as it concludes, “as John Maynard Keynes claimed: 'In the long run we are all dead.'”