Sadly, Professor Giavazzi, of Bocconi University, in Milan, is right when he says the Greek’s must reform and that if they choose poverty, let them. This FT article brought by Dr Alf, illustrates the problem of what to do with people who are obstinate and who refuse to act in their own best interests in a supposedly free society.
As it is, the Greeks are going to endure poverty anyway, whether or not they stay in the Euro, and the rest of Europe because of Greek intransigence will also pay a price financially. However, the Greeks have children, who are effectively defenseless and guileless, who will also be hurt due to the laziness and failure to see the writing on the wall of their parents and politicians, like the disgraceful Varoufakis, who ought to know better.
I am certain that Greece should leave the Euro because it got in under false pretenses, with the help of Goldman Sachs, but in the spirit of “teaching a man how to fish”, the EU should send in marketing experts to advise Greece’s tourist industry on how best to move upmarket, develop hotel and conference business to earn much needed foreign exchange. The same should be done via efficiency experts, who would look at Greece’s other industries, and see which ones could be leveraged to create employment and economic growth. Greece has thousands of qualified engineers but no car industry and it is quite big in ship leasing. Areas like these should also be explored to see whether BPO can be developed for foreign car-makers, using these engineers and whether shipping and ship-leasing can be expanded to enrich ordinary Greeks as well as the Onassis and Niarchos families.
The country cannot go on as it is with folk dancing, partying, pretending problems do not exist and living on the myth of “Zorba the Greek” played so well by Anthony Quinn, so before they are abandoned as the good professor suggests, we should try this last piece of “Being our brother’s keeper” to at least try to save future generations from the folly of their parents.
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