"I Won't Pay!" Movement Spreads Across Greece!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41723432/ns/business-world_business/

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-12-31/world/greece.taxes_1_income-taxes-greek-press-tax-evasion

Don't pay tolls and transit fees because your taxes pay for them? Okay... Don't pay taxes because you're paying for tolls and transit? Mm-hmm... Don't pay fees or taxes?
I guess this is what you get when you raise a nation of babies and never wean them off the government teat.
:tantrum:

I am sure they have cops in Greece to enforce these laws. Unfortunately, they are all sleeping.

I don't think Greeks realize yet that they can't pay nothing and get everything in return.

Greeks have always been lazy good for nothings and tax cheats.

Greeks are being raped by the EU and IMF. I fully support their response, and I wish Irish people were as willing to undertake similar actions.

If the Irish had to impose austerity measures, would everyone's internet get cut off?

We already have austerity measures.

Also, die.

You're like the schizophrenic girl at the psychiatric hospital who claims the doctor who's trying to help her is actually administering her drugs to rape her. The reality is more like this: Greece and Ireland are among the most unimportant countries of the European Union. Without the help of the EU, Ireland and Greece would soon become what they were just a few decades ago: poor and underdeveloped little countries. Yes, the money from more successful countries in the EU does come at a price. But hey: without it, Ireland and Greece would be broke. It amazes me how anyone could be so blind as to ignore this simple fact.

What rubbish.
In this case of Ireland, how on earth is forcing us to pay tens of billions in debts run up by private bankers (mainly German and French) "helping" us?
The way things are headed, we will have a disorderly default within two years because of EU "help", and I don't think the Greeks are much different.

You're making it sound like German and French banks forced you to take their money at gunpoint. So you first take their money, and then you don't feel responsible for paying it back?

We are not talking about sovereign debt. Neither the Irish people nor the Irish state took their money. Private bankers did. That turned out to be a bad investment, so they should expect to take losses as a result.

Actually I kinda respect them for doing it. Not because I think they shouldn't pay but because their government is corrupt.

If the American government was as corrupt as the Greece government I would be doing the same thing.

Of course if I'm the Greek Government I simply shut down the trains and stop paying the doctors.

"Sorry we have no money coming in from the fees so WE can't pay the government employees. Have a nice day."

The US government isn't much better.

They could always export their women.

They refuse to pay a meager 5-Euro fee to see the doctor? Dumbasses!

Shit, my co-payment alone is more than double that!

The entitlement mentality at work. Those who have it steadfastly refuse to acknowledge any responsibility for themselves and believe it's society's (read: other people's) job to take care of them.

It's interesting to see that the toll-revolt has escalated to this.

Hey Germany you're paying for this.

And some of the doctors are refusing to accept the fee.

I'm sure those doctors and transit workers still expect to be paid.

Don't be ridiculous. Ireland has lots going for it.

Potatoes, ...frosted Lucky Charms, ...um...potatoes...

The Greek people will be extinct in a few generations, anyway.

I guess this is just accelerating their downfall.

Maybe it's time to learn from those who do well and stop blaming everyone else. In the last decade, Germany has racked up a trade surplus of more than one trillion euros with the EU alone, while a number of countries have managed to run large deficits. And Germany does not have any resources, is certainly not a tax haven, does not have nice weather all year. But it has a lot of people who are honest, work hard and try to be better than the rest. That's something I feel the Greek have forgotten. I'm with Chancellor Merkel on this one: it's not the weak who should be a role model for the strong, it's the strong who should be a role model for the weak. And one step in the right direction could be for the EU to adopt Germany's Pact for Competitiveness.

I don't actually have a major problem with that, as long as we're not forced to bear the entire burden of the bad gambling debts racked up by German speculators. I'd also highlight that the huge German trade surpluses are part of the cause of the crisis, seeing as they led to the excessive lending from German banks to the periphery.

And I will add two points.

It requires a major change in the nature of the EU, from an economic union to a political one. There are extra responsibilities that go with that. EU institutions are insufficiently democratic, for starters.

While Irish corporation tax is very low, the higher European rates are accompanied by so many exemptions and write-offs that there's often little difference.

Kind of sounds like our government employee unions.

Couldn't the the borrowers just say no? Were they being forced to take this German money?

^No one turns down German money. :smoking:

Yes. They could have, but didn't. Now they should go bankrupt, and their creditors (the German banks) should get whatever they can out of that.

But of course, that's not what's happening. And I object to having to pay.

Somewhere beyond the great frontier, Socrates and Plato are high fiving and saying "WE CALLED IT. GOD, WE'RE GLAD WE'RE DEAD!!!"

So you're finally seeing the light that a European Union was a ridiculously stupid idea?

I don't think that the EU was a bad idea, in the sense that it becomes like the US. It's implementation and execution, however, may not have been well done. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with the EU to make any kind of worthwhile opinion. I'd have to ask what my Belgian relatives think to get their bead on it.

I've always had serious problems with the EU as it exists, and those have deepened in the last couple of years. But the concept of a federalised Europe isn't a bad one in itself.