Camelza wrote:Arkolon wrote:The old dogs of Europe, maybe, but what are Brussels and Berlin supposed to tell Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, or Malta, who have (on average), worse social coverage, worse economic positions, lower salaries and lower standards of living compared to Greece, when Greece asks (and might likely get) a haircut on its debt for governmental misbehaviour? Or what about Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Italy, or the UK, who sailed past the crisis by making much-needed reform, while Greece doesn't? Europe has a sentimental attachment to Greece, I'll give you that, but it is hard to let them off on this one from a European perspective.
We don't have it better, at least after 5 years of austerity were implemented.
Oh yeah, totally unlike every other country in Europe that was hit by the financial crisis. UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy; a lot of these are still in austerity. I also suffer from austerity. Europe suffers from austerity. Your special snowflake syndrome is showing, Camelza. Greece isn't the bellybutton of the world.
Our country doesn't even have a de-facto minimum wage
Neither does Germany (until 1/1/15, so well after the crisis), Sweden, or Denmark, and I don't anyway see how this is related to social coverage.
speaking of better social coverage even sounds like a joke
Compared to most of Europe, Greece does in fact have higher hospital bed density, higher salaries, and (didn't think it was this but it's surprising) much higher primary, secondary, and tertiary education enrolment than, not only 'New Europe', but Germany as well. Greece also has a more developed economy, and spends more, on average, than high-income OECD countries and the (average of) the G7 countries on social welfare spending.
and with such a humanitarian crisis
You tell me not to use emotion, and you go ahead and use 'humanitarian crisis'. Have you ever been to Croatia? To Slovenia? To Poland? To Latvia? To the Czech Republic? And I don't mean gone to look at the pretty castles, but have you met the people there, especially those in urban communities as well as rural communities? If Greece is what you call 'a humanitarian crisis', you must think these countries as remnants of a nuclear war.
even Romania seems like a good immigration target for some of my compatriots.
I can almost guarantee that that is a lie. The 'almost' stems from the slight chance that your friend is delusional.
false facts
lmao
Greece is shit and in a far worse situation than the countries you've listed.
Source that up for me, and 'it feelz wurs for me!!' isn't an acceptable answer.
...better situation my ass.
I understand a Greek and a Slovenian value a €1 coin differently, and a 10% cut to a Greek's salary with a doubling of a Slovenian's salary would make these two people feel very differently (even if, at the end, these two people would have the same salary), but you have to stop pretending that Greece is now third-world. Greece is still better off (and in some instances much better off) than a lot of 'New Europe'.
My girlfriend is Croatian. We talked about Greece and the living standards there, with people without doctors and little to no welfare and budget cuts and poverty and corruption after the crisis, but she didn't feel the empathy I did at the time. That was already the life in Croatia. And in Slovenia. And in the other countries I listed. I lost a lot of the empathy I felt for Greece when I saw the reality of life elsewhere. Greece really is a high-income, developed economy feeling a pinch from governmental misbehaviour, and you totally forget about the people in countries who already have it worse-- and this time I'm not only talking about Europe. Look at Greece on a world stage. Look at sub-Saharan Africa, look at South America, look at the Middle East, look at South East Asia. If Greece is as devastated as you say, what are these other, these genuinely poor countries to you?
