or
How to find how much your country is worth by selling it off.
"Our target is clear, and it is to generate €1.7bn from privatisations by the end of September and €5bn by the end of the year," said the finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos.
Then the theme continues:
The socialist government says it aims to raise €50bn through the campaign by 2015. Enough, it is hoped......
I suppose you could auction off most of Athens
Experts estimate Athens could own around €300bn worth of state property, almost as much as the total Greek debt.
How much is the Acropolis worth? many would have said it is priceless...but then again..
After years of resisting privatisations, the breakneck speed at which Athens has agreed to conduct the sales – nearly one every 15 days – has raised fears that state jewels will be sold at rock-bottom prices.
Of course for any of those of you who know European resorts that Germans on vacation will always be first to get their towel on the sun-lounger by the pool..The French will throw them off and pretend they never existed but still...
Germany, signaled it was interested in snapping up assets in the energy and tourism sectors.
I bet they buy the sun-loungers first....
All joking and snark aside watching your country being sold out beneath your feet must be about as depressing as it can get short of occupation.
Whole islands will be sold off to the jet set; some of whom may even have helped in sinking Greece in the first place. Strategic industries in the energy and port sectors will also be sold off, Greece will become dependent on foreign good will for its economic development, and we all know how much good will the corporations can show when it is cheaper to develop elsewhere.
Who is next on the list?
Imagine selling the National parks to China.
This may seem absurd but I haven't seen any legislation in the US designed to prevent the bankers throwing the economy under the bus; greed is still good and many financial institutions are too big to exist or fail dependent on your point of view.
No new revenue and austerity measures will hardly help our economy blossom. Keeping wages of the middle class down and giving obscene bonuses to the few is hardly a recipe for financial stability. It wasn't the poor that brought Greece low it was financial and political greed.
You want a strong and vibrant country; then you must have a strong and vibrant middle class.
Austerity on both sides of the pond is breaking the middle class and rewarding only the elite. Historically this leads to economic and social instability. Unemployment across our "democracies" is high especially amongst the youngest and this should have been the first concern of all our politicians. Temporarily you can reward the 1% disproportionately but eventually the base that generated their wealth begins to fail.
We cannot keep hammering the poorest amongst us to mollycoddle the few it will just lead to another fire-sale.
My thoughts are with the people of Greece as they watch their country being put up for auction and watching their future being put into the hands of others whose only real interest is profit.