All of Greece appears to be preoccupied by the payment of arrears (to uniformed officers, professors, NHS doctors, and other groups, based on a court ruling), benefits, and electoral handouts in general.
Social groups, trade unionists, and individuals are seeking ways to cover the losses they suffered during eight years of economic crisis.
With the climate that it has cultivated, the government has opened a Pandora’s Box of problems that will be difficult to control. When one urges pensioners to hasten to submit applications, and when one promises to hand out that part of the primary surplus that exceeds targets one unavoidably stirs expectations that are difficult to meet.
Yesterday, parliament employees became the latest group that is demanding to be paid past holiday and vacation bonuses that had been cut and then restored by the judiciary. Every day a new group emerges to demand what they believe they justly deserve.
Narturally, none of these groups wonders where the money will be found and from whom the money will be taken to satisfy their demands. Everyone believes that the money is available, a views that is fueled by the government’s celebration of the super-surplus, and by its promising handouts in order to gain votes.
Undoubtedly, the majority of Greeks has suffered major income cuts and has adjusted its standard of living downwards. However, it is irrational to overlook the fact that the country has essentially gone bankrupt, and that it remains in the danger zone.
What most who are today are demanding back their lost income forget is that the group that has been hit hardest is private sector employees (especially youths, who receive starvation salaries), and not pensioners and civil servants.
Woe to the country if during the electoral period we have a contest between parties over which will offer the most promises and between social groups over which will make the most claims.
Obviously, all of us would like higher salaries and pensions, a higher income, but that presupposes that the economy can endure it and that we are not undermining our common future yet again.
