Greece has lots of problems, along with several other countries in the EU and some even say that the US is looking at major economic problems….Greece has erupted in violence….again.
I have been writing about the problems and some of the solutions that the IMF will look for and some of the other choices that Greece must come to terms with and soon……..
I wrote a piece the other day about what the IMF will most likely demand of Greece…..http://bit.ly/mEUNw0……and today there is another post on the austerity politics ….all are related to the happenings in Greece….
But if Greece is to save itself from financial ruin what must it do?
In an article written by Wayne Madson…..
What lies in store for Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Italy, and, in short order, the United States, is the wholesale sell-off of public property to private corporations at bargain basement prices. What the despots who gather in their secretive lairs at Davos, Cernobbio, Bilderberg, and G8/G20 are bringing about is a world where no property is owned by the state, which by default means the people. Total corporate control over every facet of life equals extreme fascism.What is occurring in Greece is a bellwether for what will befall other nations in Europe, as well as the United States, if the bankers get their way. And in Greece, the people know how generations of investments by the taxpayers are being turned over to vampire capitalists who have the full backing of the International Monetary Fund, European Commission, and the European Central Bank.
The European and global bankers have demanded that the Greek government sell off entirely or assume a minority stake in a number of state enterprises and utilities.
For example, this year global capitalists are slated to acquire 84 percent of OTE, the Greek telecommunications provider. In addition, private bankers will assume 66 percent ownership of the Greek Postal Savings Bank; 51 percent of the National Lottery; 60 percent of the Salonika Water Authority; 68 percent of DEPA, the natural gas utility; and 25 percent ownership of the ports of Piraeus and Salonika.
Next year, the capitalist grab for public property increases in intensity with Athens International Airport coming under 79 percent private ownership. The global capitalists will also obtain 100 percent ownership of the Egniata toll motorway; 60 percent of Hellenic Post; 66 percent of OPAP, the state-run video-lotto and online sports betting firm; 73 percent of the Athens Water Authority; 83 percent of DEI, the Greek Electric Authority; and 51 percent of the Greek Regional Airports Authority.
There you are……an all out assault on the public sector…….an attempt to make everything and I mean everything is controlled by the private sector….everything will be for profit and NOTHING will be based on need or society’s needs….not a bad deal…..one gets to control the public sector for pennies on the dollar………..and NO one can see why the people are pissed off? What is the first thing companies do when they buy another company? (pause here for reflection)…..do not hurt yourself…..they fire people and shit can benefits…..and this what the whole world is looking at when the people scream about austerity…….
What part of any of this austerity crap is good for the people? Where will it improve their lives?
Happy days are here again!
You see? That’s the problem that we all face. My GUT says you’re right – in a way – not least about the bargain basement prices – but that is the only reason my HEAD says there’s anything wrong…
Why do I think that? Well, the truth is that, whether those on the left will admit it or not, public ownership of those sorts of assets and services is really only based on dogma – the state should own it (which incidentally is equal to the people owning it IN NAME ONLY, because they really do NOT). In my opinion, there’s very little that the state can run better or cheaper than the private sector, however much profit the corporations will make. True, in an ideal world, the state will have a more benign attitude to the “have nots”, but in reality the state is SO bloody bad and so overloaded and hidebound by daft, cumbersome bureaucracy, that it rarely runs ANYTHING that is actually for the benefit of ordinary people. Spongers, crooks, cheats, the lazy and the downright useless ARE looked after by state run organisations, but ordinary people who just need a bit of temporary help? NO f*cking chance! I could give you COUNTLESS examples of that in the UK and I doubt it’s that different in the US, or across Europe.
Where I AGREE with you is when it comes to education, medical care, basic level pensions, TEMPORARY unemployment welfare and the like. Where I DISAGREE is with most of the things you’ve listed – those things SHOULD be in the private sector because it generally does it better. Look, how is it better if the state provides a service for say $100 that includes $50 worth of pointless bureaucracy and a corporation provides that same $100 service but is making $50 profit out of that by NOT wasting and being more efficient? It simply ISN’T better! The KEY is the TERMS under which such industries are privatised and run and that IS under the control of government – if they have the intelligence and talent to do it!
No, the REALLY wicked (and stupid) thing is that the state didn’t sell off things it didn’t NEED to be involved in when the economy was bouyant and the price they could have got ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE AND THE COUNTRY would have been so much higher! But that would have meant admitting that they COULD not and SHOULD not micro manage people’s lives! No chance of that then!
I’m pretty damned sure that you are 100% RIGHT about the intention and motives behind the bankers and financiers actions, but THAT is why I keep on saying we ALL have to straighten ourselves out and NOT EVER be in debt to these assholes. If WE behave responsibly, THEY will never gain control! The banks etc. DEPEND on our stupidity and we’ve been pretty accommodating in that direction so far, haven’t we? They are taking the piss and, since we need them so much, there’s little or nothing WE can do about it, is there? How stupid were WE to let THAT happen?
Quin, I have seen this type of thing happen here in the US………there are companies scrambling to buy up toll ways, parks, and look at Blackwater…they took over the security of US diplomats….and some of them make $1200 a day……not what a Marine would make and the government still pays for the security only at a high rate….now there is good business!
Yeah, but that’s the US. It’s really not all that comparable elsewhere – least of all Greece, Portugal, Spain and the like. The politics of those countries have mostly been waaa-aay left of the US and they are now paying the price for trying to have what they could not afford. Sorry, but that’s the plain truth of it. 🙁
True…..social democracy sorta thingy…I need to read more on the countries and the problems…….