Greece...

Froggitt

To an extent, the Germans are right. Why should people from other countries inside and outside the Eurozone subsidise the profligate spending of the Greek government? The NO vote said no to austerity, no to reducing pensions, no to raising taxes...........and yes to everyone else paying for great Greek pensions, low Greek taxes etc.


When it all blows up, Merkel/IMF/EU can point to the referendum, which gave the Greeks a chance to change their mind on Leftism if they wanted to.

ChiefGrasscutter

But it is really no different to a poor area of the UK being subsidised by London/South east.
That is the whole idea of a single currency area - the 'rich' transfers their "excess" to the poor with no expectation of a return.

For a more extreme example my village does not "produce" anything at all from what I can see and is in a single currency called the £. It relies on its inhabitants bringing money in from their jobs outside the areas.

The Germans don't really seem to have understood the implications of a currency union yet, however to be fair such a union does require a degree of central control ie fiscal union (over the poorer regions) which is not going to happen anytime soon - or ever in the EU.

remorseless

it is very different because in the UK, even the poorer areas, the rules are the same.

Across EU tax system, pension requirements, etc are different. One country should not expect another to bail out unless there's a give and take...maybe one day when there will be European Passports but till then.

Do you think it's fair that the UK has contributed £1bn (haven't verified accuracy) to fund Greek lifestyle whilst pensioner in the UK can't even afford heating on a meagre pension?

Richer countries just transferring funds to poorer neighbours that haven't reformed is like throwing money down a pit...

"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me"

danothy

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

That is the whole idea of a single currency area - the 'rich' transfers their "excess" to the poor with no expectation of a return.

For a more extreme example my village does not "produce" anything at all from what I can see and is in a single currency called the £. It relies on its inhabitants bringing money in from their jobs outside the areas.

Or alternatively, rather than the purpose being the rich transferring their excess, the "whole idea" may well be that there is ease of equitable trade and exchange. Your village most likely uses the GBP in order to interact with the rest of the UK easily. That money the inhabitants bring in via their jobs isn't excess from the rich transferred with nothing returned, it's exchanged for their labour.

CLAPTON

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

But it is really no different to a poor area of the UK being subsidised by London/South east.
That is the whole idea of a single currency area - the 'rich' transfers their "excess" to the poor with no expectation of a return.

For a more extreme example my village does not "produce" anything at all from what I can see and is in a single currency called the £. It relies on its inhabitants bringing money in from their jobs outside the areas.

The Germans don't really seem to have understood the implications of a currency union yet, however to be fair such a union does require a degree of central control ie fiscal union (over the poorer regions) which is not going to happen anytime soon - or ever in the EU.

No

the 'idea' of a single currency area has nothing to do with 'subsidy'

your example of 'my village ' is self evident nonsense

a single currency doesn't require some people to borrow lots of money and refuse to repay it.

heol

what did the greeks ever do for us?

Thrugelmir

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

But it is really no different to a poor area of the UK being subsidised by London/South east.

Hartlepool cannot decide to pay a higher level of pension than London. Nor can it impose a lower rate of VAT. The comparison you suggest is wide of the mark.

globalds

CLAPTON wrote: »

a single currency doesn't require some people to borrow lots of money and refuse to repay it.

A single currency allowed a nation that everyone knew had a bad credit history to lend like it had a perfect credit rating.

Do you think we should pass slightly more blame on the Lenders ?

Thrugelmir

heol wrote: »

what did the greeks ever do for us?

1.7 million people took a holiday there in 2014.

Carl31

Thrugelmir wrote: »

1.7 million people took a holiday there in 2014.

How many was it before the Euro was introduced?

I bet it was loads more, this is why they need to bring back the drachma, so we can go there and go out on the raz for less than a tenner a night