In recent years, Greece’s place in the Eurozone has been an example of how severe economic debt can detrimentally affect global and European financial markets. Currently, we’re waiting for a draft of the bailout deal to be revealed. Many believe the agreement will be for as much as €80 billion for a 3 year loan programme. This money will quench the thirst of a system suffering from extreme drought. But will it be enough? There’s been talk of a privatisation programme through selling off stadiums, marinas, airports etc. however we’ve been down this road before. Several years ago in 2011, Greece was convinced that it could raise €50 billion by 2015 through selling off these government assets. When 2015 came around, the grand total raised was a miserable €3.2 million.
But how is this affecting Greek citizens – especially young people? Restricting the amount of withdrawals from banks and with shortages of medicine and food, will this discourage a new generation from living in Greece and Europe? On one hand, watching a country and communities rebuild their homes can reinforce the importance of cultural identity. On the other hand, more than 200,000 young people have already fled to other European countries in order to secure jobs and start creating a new life for themselves. Few have commented on the impact that this crisis will have on the people who continue to live in Greece, those who trying to actively help the people in their communities. (Personally I’ve found Jon Henley’s series ‘Greece on the breadline’ to be the only example of interesting, quality journalism when it comes to Greece.)
Many seem to be viewing the Greek crisis as a isolated problem that’s unlikely to affect the UK at all. As is the norm for many debt crises, it is not the Greek people who are to blame, there are many factors out of their control and decisions made in government seem isolated from Greek citizens, even with the referendum. If such a crisis had occurred in the UK, France or Germany, measures would be very different than seen in Greece today. Some economists trace the problems in Greece back to the 1980s and ask should Greece have been accepted as a member of the EU in the first place. There are still many unanswered questions.
The events that will unfold over the next few days will be written about in Economics textbooks for years to come, explaining a very real Eurozone nightmare. But the real question is will Greeks remember it negatively, as a time of suffering, or positively, as communities cooperating in order to save themselves? And will others who find themselves in areas of crisis look to Greece as an example of post-crisis economical success?
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You write: “As is the norm for many debt crises, it is not the Greek people who are to blame” I don’t agree. It is the Greek people in general who have consumed more than they have produced for decades. It is Greek people in general who have failed to report when pensioners die in order to receive their pensions to the tune of billions of dollars. It is the Greek people in general who have for decades voted for corrupt politicians hoping that they would promote their own interests.
Thank you for your comment. I wanted to make the point that Greek citizens have not chosen to be in a debt crisis. Their political system is not yet as democratic as it perhaps should be and decisions made at a higher level has negatively impacted innocent children and young people who didn’t vote in the recent referendum or in the referendum for Greece to be part of the EU. I feel that the IMF didn’t do it’s job properly (not the fault of Greek citizens), I feel that Europe itself didn’t come to Greece’s aid when it’s economy showed signs of decline (not the fault of Greek citizens) and I feel the Greek government was complacent when it came to taking early action against the debt crisis. Therefore although the general economical behaviour of Greek citizens could have been better, I do not believe they are to blame. I do understand your point. Again, thank you for your comment.