Maybe this will fix Greece

What will fix Greece is the introduction of some industry to provide employment.

There are no GM's or GE's or Fords. Large employers are practically non existent.

It is the goal of most Greeks to own a small business. Coffee shops, souvenir, shops etc proliferate.

Tourism is the third largest source of income but only employees a fraction of the population.

Also frankly tax evasion is a way of life............so many factors add up to a situation

that sends the brightest and the best to other countries where employment is guaranteed.

Many never come back.

There are several factors behind the problem and what I have cited just scratches the surface.


Deregulation and privatization would fix Greece. Europe is focusing on the wrong thing by trying to set a level of primary budget surplus. That is a short term issue. Growth would solve a lot of the problems but growth requires massive loosening of regulations that limit what businesses can do. Greece is a prime example of job and growth killing regulation strangulation.


Well the country may be on the verge of bankruptcy ............but it is summer time and the living is easy

Takhttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=814155115348173&set=a.571365309627156.1073741828.100002610764872&type=1&theateren by my friend Dimtri on the Island of Aegina...........the view from his back porch


For those who didn't see the movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJEDUuDmnTE



For those who have not seen the movie............It is all true...........

And for those of us who have lived the life........well at least for me..........I would not have it any other way.


What author says is confirmed by my colleagues and clients, here in the local Greek community. It was one of the main topics of conversation yesterday (to divert from our local politics, and who's dying). (Remember, I work for the local Greek community.) Colleagues all say the practice of owning houses for centuries should stop (blocks development, and I gather there are minimal land rates/too many ways to not pay full value of land rates under this system). Plus the families that should set a better example, don't pay the proper share of tax... Not only not setting the right example for younger people, it's not a wonderful ethical stance from which to claim $$$ from someone else.


"joanne...........the practice of families owning their homes over there is both a blessing and a curse.

I have been to the home where my Grandfather was born in the 1890's which is still in the family and in use till recently It does ensure some stability but at the same time it does not encourage any real growth.

My closest lady friend owns four houses..........inherited from her dad. She will not part with any of them and is even reticent to rent them out. I taught her how to use Craigs List and we had one island home

rented with in two days.

But the tax evasion is massive. My friend Dimitri owns a small hotel on one side of the island of Aegina It is sort of a Jersey Shore situation. He and his wife do very well in the warm weather months but struggle

when the weather cools. So he drives his motorcycle over the mountain to the larger Port City on the other side and works in a restaurant there..........what else?

Now small business transactions there are almost all cash. He knows that he and his partner Sprio might

collect 100,000 Euros over the course of a year. And yet his boss, the owner will report only

20,000 Euros for tax purposes..............How he gets away with it I just don't know

In Greece for every purchase you make , like a pack of gum, you get a printed receipt.........whether you want one or not. So there is a record for every purchase made. I know that is not the only problem but it is a major one.

Dimitri and some guy from Maplewood



My friends tell me the problem with the houses is that the young people can't find property to purchase for themselves, because everything is inherited and kept 'for the family'. And that overseas family from everywhere expect to be able to come and stay, sometimes for months on end, rent free, whenever they feel like it ( like a 'right of return'). So houses sit empty, farms are neglected, even office buildings are empty because no one actively manages the property.

It's one thing to have a family 'seat', but quite another to cry poor while owning 5or 6 empty properties.

oh oh


joanne and author,

You can no doubt clear something up for me. Many years ago, we had neighbors who were Greek (this was in western Pa.) They owned a chain of movie theaters. My mother was a good friend of the wife. Her family owned property on Crete, which she inherited. She built a villa on Crete, which she visited once a year because, as I recall, if she hadn't built the property would have been taken by the state. Does this sound right? I may have lost something in the translation.



Hard to say. I have two very different sets of relatives. The Athenians are all Doctors, Dentists etc.

Also insufferably boring. But that is another story. Each and every one of them owns a villa somewhere and are constantly inviting me to visit there.

The second group are farmers in a village whose name is wholly unpronounceable l They were tobacco farmers for generations and now they grow olives............like Greece needs more olives?

But in terms of Villa's . The village is maybe 30 miles from Argos, a mid size city. The village has no internet.

I think the story about the land being confiscated is a bit of a stretch It seems to be that among those who have the where with all, the idea of having a Villa is high on the priority list.


As I said, I may have lost something in the translation. She definitely had the where with all. She was an absolutely lovely person.


Actually, I remember vaguely hearing that there needs to be a house or a use to land, it can't just sit fallow and empty with no sign of life. But that may have been under a decades-ago govt.

hey, author, one of my colleagues grew up on a tobacco farm! Wonder if it was the same region? Maybe you're related!!! Wouldn't that be a small world??


joanne - This was decades ago.


Joanne.................the family name is Tsirikos. I have young third cousins in the town of Argos. One actually speaks English.......never thought I would miss it.

But the largest collection of family members is in the Village of Loukia which I would say is West and a little North of Argos.

When my mom , who was completely fluent in the language visited 35 years ago they were fortunate in finding a truck driver who guided them into the Village.

I was on my own and used topography maps because there was another village with a similar sounding name in the opposite direction.

I got stranded the first try in the mountains for a number of reasons........was about to give up and go back to my island but the small hotel owner where I was staying would not hear of it.............he worked the phones and it turned out that his sister worked in the local hospital with my cousin. The rest was easy.



Manoli is working now; I might try in a couple of hours or tomorrow... oh oh


Curious to find out............Argos is the operative word here. It is also the oldest most continuously

settled town in all of Europe.


Not Argos, unfortunately! (Picture me snapping my fingers in disappointment) Manoli comes from Lemnos. Ah well!


Lemnos is a lovely island. I would be hard pressed to find one that is not.

http://au.greekreporter.com/2015/02/02/australians-and-new-zealanders-traveling-to-lemnos-in-april/


That event was massive, here. Many families in my community were affected, many of the men in my Older Men's Club either remember the original Diggers (yep, they're that old, they were boys then) or the WW2 batch. The ties b/n Queensland and various parts of Greece are amazingly strong and historic.


The people of Crete will forever be grateful to the British and Commonwealth forces who stood with them

in their desperate battle

The old one's are leaving us now...............but the stories are passed on and will never die.



Fun further developments! My colleague R told me Manoli is from Lemnos; when I spoke with Manoli this evening, he said no, from Samos! LO


I was offered a job on Samos years ago. It was to be in a hotel which as it happened was never constructed. The Island is a little too close to the Turkish coast also and at the time things were not going too smoothly between the two countries. Not my idea of a resort vacation /employment.


A bit of a misconception about the Greek Islands is that they are all fun and sun and party places like Mykonos. Well some are to a degree. But the old ones were part of the culture that dominated the Mediterranean and brought us wonders that we still share.

This is the Temple of Aphia on my island of Aegina. It was built to honor a sea nymph captured off the coast of Crete and brought back to Aegina. It is the only one of its kind in the world. Many visitors are reminded of the works of Escher. The view of the ocean is spectacular but the visitors are few



A bit of a misconception about the Greek Islands is that they are all fun and sun and party places like Mykonos. Well some are to a degree. But the old ones were part of the culture that dominated the Mediterranean and brought us wonders that we still share.

This is the Temple of Aphia on my island of Aegina. It was built to honor a sea nymph captured off the coast of Crete and brought back to Aegina. It is the only one of its kind in the world. Many visitors are reminded of the works of Escher. The view of the ocean is spectacular but the visitors are few



Meteora.......where the monks built their monasteries during the Middle Ages. Some of them are on stone structures over 900 feet in the air.........


Is Meteora the monastery that was filmed in the James Bond movie, "For Your Eyes Only"? The photo sparked an instant memory for me...


Peggy..........Meteora is actually a series of 6 buildings one of which has been donated as nunnery.

I believe three are open to the public for limited visitations. My better photos are on the hard drive of my wife' s computer. She went with me to Greece for the first time in 30 years last year Since we rented a house on Aegina we just could not squeeze in the monasteries. Maybe next yearthe

Visitors to the monastery


Peggy..........Meteora is actually a series of 6 buildings one of which has been donated as nunnery.

I believe three are open to the public for limited visitations. My better photos are on the hard drive of my wife' s computer. She went with me to Greece for the first time in 30 years last year Since we rented a house on Aegina we just could not squeeze in the monasteries. Maybe next yearthe

Visitors to the monastery


Peggy..........Meteora is actually a series of 6 buildings one of which has been donated as nunnery.

I believe three are open to the public for limited visitations. My better photos are on the hard drive of my wife' s computer. She went with me to Greece for the first time in 30 years last year Since we rented a house on Aegina we just could not squeeze in the monasteries. Maybe next yearthe

Visitors to the monastery


In order to add a comment – you must Join this community – Click here to do so.