Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/07/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I spent about eight days in Greece this summer and was quite interested in what I might find. While the historical components are fascinating, there's little else there. As Nathan said, they have little to nothing to export to the world in terms of Greek expertise. We found the country to be a pleasant place but with a ramshackle economy, very very poor infrastructure, and many dilapidated buildings/residences. Many structures had been abandoned in mid-construction. The place just generally looked unkept with grass and weeds everywhere and lots of people sitting around. Athens struck me as an organic place...it just grew up without any zoning, purpose of areas, or anything of the sort. Even the administration of the ruins was suspect...we bought tickets for a certain archeological area and were told by the ticket seller it would close in two hours. We get inside and 20 minutes later, they were shooing us out. >From what I learned given Greece's tumultous recent history, there appears to be no loyalty to the government but to small areas and what used to be called tribes. People don't feel any obligation to do things that are supportive of the country economically. On the other hand, I drove on the worst roads I've ever seen and then on the best roads I've ever seen, too. The roads leading from the new airport are spectacular as are other motorways leading south from Athens. Going east towards Delphi and then to Olympia, the roads quickly deteriorate to almost paved goat paths. Oh...things were much cheaper in Greece compared to Italy or France, too. Too bad they can't export tourism. Robert Clark Lancaster, PA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Frank Dernie" <Frank.Dernie at btinternet.com> To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org> Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 6:21 AM Subject: Re: [Leica] Luis and Steve > Spot on Nathan. Scary to think the only taxpayers are the public employees > since that means nobody is topping up the pot at all, since tax paid by > public employees goes straight into their next pay packet to be topped up > by money paid in by non-paid-out-of-the-same-pot taxpayers. > Greece really is a millstone. > FD > > On 19 Jul, 2011, at 09:18, Nathan Wajsman wrote: > >> First of all, Greece has by far the highest debt, 160% of GDP or so, >> about twice as much as the US. Secondly, the economy is backwards, >> dysfunctional (basically, only public sector employees pay taxes, the >> rest cheat and get away with it, at least until now). Spain has some >> world-class companies, like Zara, Santander (yes, I know it is a bank, >> but banks are still needed), Telefonica, bits of Airbus, high-speed train >> expertise, good medical research etc. Greece has none of those things, >> just some ruins and ouzo. In the old days it could compete on costs by >> devaluing its currency, the drachma, from time to time, but that option >> is not open to it inside the Euro zone. >> >> Finally, Greek politicians are simply crooks. They actually falsified >> national accounts--think Enron on a country scale. >> >> Aside from its geographic location, I have a hard time thinking of Greece >> as a proper European country. They had their glory days, but that was >> about 2500 years ago. >> >> Cheers, >> Nathan >> >> Nathan Wajsman >> Alicante, Spain >> http://www.frozenlight.eu >> http://www.greatpix.eu >> http://www.nathanfoto.com >> PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws >> Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >