Vaggelis Gettos, 24, is just as alarmed at the burden being heaped on the young by austerity measures expected to be announced today, and has pledged to resist them in more protests this week against what he sees as a plot to impoverish Greece.
“We will live much worse than our parents,” he said. “Why should we be made to pay for their mistakes?”
The question of who was to blame and who should pay for the greatest crisis to afflict the single currency was a subject of heated debate, particularly after a leading credit rating agency put the cradle of civilisation in the same category as Azerbaijan by reducing its government bonds to “junk” status.
Economists regard the bloated civil service with its jobs for life and generous pensions as a cancer consuming the country’s resources. The older generation, the experts grimly concur, turned the state into a giant cash machine to be plundered at will.
Today the party is over, however, and that makes some experts optimistic: Greece now has no choice but to implement much-needed reforms that will bring swift results. “It’s like a dentist putting a child in braces,” said one observer. “It’s not nice, but necessary for growth in the right direction.”
I love the irony here. Mr Veggelis Gettos is justifiably worked up and says "why should we be made to pay for their mistakes". Good question Mr Gettos but here is the problem, if you don't, that leaves us with two other options.
a. You are passing the buck on to your children who can ask the same question. or
b. You are making it the rest of the world's problem (i.e. the Germans and the IMF) and they contrary to your parents did not retire at 45 with the world's best benefits.
So let us try this once again Mr Gettos, if this is not your problem, whose problem is it then? I know now is not the time, but I would seriously recommend picking up a book on macroeconomics sooner rather than later. Try http://goo.gl/Kffh or http://goo.gl/bA2W.>
