Greek Businessmen Scared of Angry Crowd
Published in HautNews
Category: Business News/ Opinion
The rich people in Greece must keep a low profile. They try not to expose their wealth to the angry crowd. Is this far enough away from us?
Being a rich Greek these days means nothing but trouble. Even though the rest of the Greek folks would rather be on that side of the trouble, it is still not easy.
The new bailout package of 86 billion Euros has been offered to Greece. Despite the fact that bankruptcy has been avoided, at least for now, this nightmare is not over for the Greek people, not even close. The payments could be only rescheduled, but there will be no reduction.
The reality still remains very painful for many Greeks, perhaps more than ever. New spending cuts, tax increases, pension reforms, in translation this means – serious recession. One part of the agreement also includes Greek assets of 50 billion Euros to be privatized or managed by the European Union! These measures might even ruin all the hopes for the future, and cause more anger among those who have nothing to cut.
In the times like these, uncertain and unpredictable, the wealthy Greeks decided to mingle with the crowd. No expensive cars on the streets of Kifissia, Glyfada, and Piraeus (the upper-class suburbs of Athens). The cars are hidden behind the secured garage-doors. Fancy playgrounds for the privileged - clubs, restaurants, exclusive stores, all abandoned. The “luxury retail”, including the property sales, collapsed.
While the country is in turmoil, the rich are stamped, who are they to trust? Their body-guards? No way. The body-guards are part of the crowd. Their employees? For the minimum wage and that sense of uncertainty every employee has to live with - not possible. Should they trust the security systems? Definitely not. The experts of all kinds, about 50 percent of them, are out of work. These new proletarians have nothing else to do but to “hack” security systems.
They have all the time of this world, all the knowledge available, and nothing to lose. How to be safe anywhere? Everything is breakable, or rather “hackable”. Everything is traceable, even the money already transferred to foreign accounts. The rich decided to keep a low profile, and mingle with the crowd, just in case. But still, someone might remember that Greek businessmen contributed to the national catastrophe by not paying taxes. Not an easy life.
The Prime Minister and his left supporters promised a lot. They dared to mention even the future. We say – Good luck with that. George Orwell would say: “So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot.”
This fire is equally hot for the left wing as for the right wing. What could spark the fire is not a political idea. It is a widely spread misconception. A political idea comes as collateral damage, usually abused by the fake philosophers, and ambitious newcomers. Poverty strikes this fire.
Without poverty no radical idea would ever face the real world. Poverty can spark this fire, and it often does. But poverty is like a contagious disease. Sometimes it takes a form of epidemic. We have seen it many times through human history. Once it crosses the borders, it could cause a widespread disaster. Even then, the governments tend to believe that, it was the idea that infected the nation.
How safe are we from this epidemic? Very safe, we all want to believe. But, the truth is, we are not. To get a decent job in the United States, you must have a master’s degree, you need to know this, this, and that, preferably to have some experience already, etc. The best part- this kind of job is paid about 12 American dollars per hour. For the wage of $12 per hour, you may buy nothing but the one-way ticket to poverty. Added to it the fat student loans needed to get a degree, the math is simple. This is our reality. Needless to mention, the federal minimum wage in the United States is not even $12 but $7.25 per hour. It is the cost of one loaf of bread; 1.5 lb of fresh cherries; not enough for two gallons of milk, etc. Again, the math is more than simple. However, we have seen the long lines for these low-paid job-openings lately. And it is here, in our neighborhood, not somewhere in Greece.
It is still not too late. This epidemic is preventable. Our governments just have to take some measures. But, if they don’t, when the time of turmoil comes, even being rich will be tough. The new generation of the oppressed is different from any generation before. It is the class of highly educated individuals, experts, susceptible to all kinds of new ideas. These people are able to create unbelievable things. It is better to use them for something smart and progressive, than turn them against the establishment.
I live in America, the land of the free. Being the free one, I believe I may use my “right to tell the people what they do not want to hear.” (George Orwell)
