Prometheus 2.0

Greece may not make a scheduled payment of 300 million Euros to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), thus allowing their bundling payments by the end of this June. Regardless whether Greece bundles enough money to appease the troika for a few more days, the economic conditions show the EU cannot maintain this facade of pursuing a Nash equilibrium whereby the troika (and their constituents) and Greece both benefit. The EU will only accept Greece as a fleeced and gutted subject, whose pensions will be donated as the last dribbles in a slush fund to bondholders. Will Greece Greexit? Join the BRICS? Remain in the EU? Not sure yet, but we know that austerity has not improved Greek's economic conditions.

I initially posted this brief entry 3 years ago, but Greece's continued crisis and potentially missed payments prompted my re-posting it again.................

Greece ceases to be a functioning sovereign nation of which its citizens appear to exercise little control. The conventional analysis informs us that the European Union's first casualty faces exile because it pampered its citizens with an unsustainable safety net. This analysis batters observers with images of 50-year old parasitic pensioners retiring early into a worker's paradise, defying the imaginations of those condemned to perpetual toil.  These conditions of course have bankrupted Greece, and risk killing Jean Monnet's dream. The EU as a work in progress embodies a fulfillment of the Enlightenment. Thus, austerity must be imposed on the periphery to strengthen the center. Wage cuts, tax increases, and their sovereignty are small sacrifices that Greece needs to make in order to save this noble project of the Enlightenment. The assumed necessity and progressive nature of the EU, though, provide nothing more than platitudes when critically examining Greece's true political economy. The reported anecdotes of Greece's pampered pensioners serve as straw men whom the media animates to overshadow a nation withered by troubling trends preceding its inception into the EU.

A few statistical measurements deserve more attention in order to see a more accurate picture of Greece. This more accurate picture of Greece defies the image often repeated in the media as parasites fattening themselves on its welfare state. Yes more boring stats, but in their abstractedness they shed light on the true socioeconomic conditions in Greece. 

First, the EU tracks what is referred to as the "at risk of poverty threshold." The EU sets this rate at "60% of the national median equivalised [sic] disposable income." [1]. Of the original 15 member states of the EU, Greece in 2007 had the highest at risk poverty rate after factoring in the monies spent on social spending. [2]. The economic crisis began in 2007, which explains why I cite this figure for that year. But, Greece sustained the highest at risk of poverty rate through 2009, which is the last year for which the EU has published data for this specific measurement. This measurement of  poverty net of social spending adds little credence to Austerity Inc's claim that Greece needs tough love from Mama Merkel.

   

Greece's high poverty rate could be explained by its subsidizing citizens to retire early. Greece's labor market debunks this notion though. Average hours worked in the entire EU 

from 2004-2007 ranged, respectively, from 41.7 to 41.8. [3]. Greece's labor force, though, worked an average of 44.1 to 43.8 hours, respectively, during the same period. [4]. This statistic adds no credence to the image of Greece as a land of leisure.

Greeks have worked more hours per week compared to their EU counterparts. Moreover, Greeks' workforce accounts for a significant percentage of those living in poverty. In 2007 58% of those living in poverty belong to households within which the head of household is employed. [5]. Greece is a nation consisting of large masses of working poor. How will austerity measures improve Greece's economy suffering from the aforementioned socioeconomic conditions?

Since 2009 when Greece received its bailout, austerity measures have failed to improve 2 important economic factors: public debt and youth unemployment (consisting of workers aged 15-24). Yet Greece still deserves to suffer more.

Greece's loss of sovereignty is occurring for reasons unrelated to an excessively generous welfare state. The abstract debates over proper doses of austerity though important should not blind us from a more critical development. Europe is a civilization comprised of peacefulness that emerged after centuries of intermittent sectarian wars and genocides. Most statistical measures of violence and prohibitions against gun ownership, no death penalty, relatively small militaries-measured in numbers of soldiers and budgets-have shown Europe as a "post-violent" continent. But, the size and intensity of Greek citizens' protests have begun to show austerity is a poor substitute for social contracts as a method for maintaining legitimacy. 

The EU itself compiled some of the data cited here. Nonetheless,  EU policy makers and politicians prefer to ignore the true conditions shown by the data compiled by their own research. Greece needs neither austerity measures nor morality lectures. Hopefully another Prometheus stands ready to share fire with those whom austerity attempts to reduce to debt peonage. This fire is immeasurable though still palpable among the masses. It must burn with fury and purpose to stop Austerity Inc from reorganizing the EU into a neo-feudal state wherein bondholders determine the conditions by which everyone else lives.      

1.http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Income_distribution_statistics

2. ibid.

3.http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/employment_unemployment_lfs/data/main_tables

4. ibid.

5.http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/psy300512.html