Lazy Greeks, a neo-liberal cliché

[xchrom]

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1506361-lazy-greeks-neo-liberal-cliche

For some time now, the obsessional recourse to negative images of Southern Europeans, who are portrayed as lazy and irresponsible, has been increasingly prevalent. These characteristics are not only projected on individuals, but also on the governments of Italy, Greece and Spain.

According to the myth that accompanies these portrayals, national vices are at the origin of the crisis that has engulfed the European project. Videos of lazy Greeks are blithely circulated on YouTube, and the cliché of a Mediterranean lolling in the sun has become a mental reflex when trying to explain the cause of the crisis in the eurozone.

Fables about the south

Take for example the heavily spun assertions about southern laziness and extravagance, particularly directed against the Greeks. Data from the OECD clearly shows that Greek workers put in more hours per year (an annual average of 2,109 hours worked) than other Europeans – and in particular the industrious Germans (1,419 per year).

Of course, it is easy to say that the number of hours spent at work and hours that are effectively utilised may not be the same, and that it is possible to spend half of a 12-hour day at the office looking up exotic recipes on the internet.

[Warpy]

1. If you want to know why people are poor, study the rich

Study their habits, their attitudes, their endless acquisitiveness. That's what make so many people poor, the attitude that something is wrong with people who didn't inherit money and a certain social position and the determination to keep it that way because that's the way it should be.

If you look at the rich in Greece, you see one very startling thing: taxes are seen as entirely voluntary. If they don't feel like paying them (and who does?), they don't bother. Since the laws are toothless for everyone but the poor, the country is now in deep crisis and making things even worse for poor folks, some of whom have been paying up to 251% more taxes for the past two years, at least. And the rich continue to skate because of their own sense of entitlement.

They will be overthrown, of course, and if they're lucky, will turn Communist just long enough to depose the wealthy at the top and morph into a more egalitarian and free society the way some other countries have after the Communist experiment.

If they are unlucky, the rich will just change uniforms and keep things as they are.

[CAPHAVOC]

2. It's up!

The can is on the 50. It is 3 seconds left in overtime or CDS is in. Papadopalousamus has only one chance. The Snap, The kick is up. Its Gooood! The crowd goes wild! They are burning down all the Starbucks. Burning down the banks. What is happening? They won. Austerity will set you free?