The Greeks will laugh and dance while the German taxpayers work and sweat.
The Greek economy is a joke. Unfortunately, the joke’s on hard-working German taxpayers who now find themselves forced to bail out their lazy-ass EuroZone neighbors.
Reuters explains how the Hellenistic economy went to hell:
Tens of thousands of unmarried or divorced daughters of civil servants collect their dead parents’ pensions, weighing on a social security system experts say will collapse in 15 years unless it is overhauled….
While the law protects civil servants from dismissal, it allows them to retire with a pension in their 40s.
Greek pension spending is expected to rise by 12 percent of gross domestic product by 2050, according to EU Commission data. That compares with an EU average of less than 3 percent of GDP…
Labour unions foiled government attempts to sell debt-ridden Olympic Airways for decades, costing Greek taxpayers millions while employees enjoyed generous benefits—their family members could fly around the world for free… Olympic was sold in 2008, but only after the state lavishly compensated or re-hired about 4,600 employees…
The state owns 74 companies, mainly utilities and transport firms, many of which are overstaffed and loss-making, the OECD says…
Hundreds of state-appointed committees employ staff though it is not clear what they all do. Greece has a committee to manage Lake Kopais, which dried out in the 1930s…
But nearly 80 percent of Defence Ministry spending goes on administrative costs and payments of army staff.
The Greek Army? Consider that the punchline to Germany’s very expensive joke.
Source: Reuters
