You have no idea what you are talking about and why Greece is in the situation it is in. Their problems have NOTHING to do with redistriubtion of wealth.
First they have a cash flow problem. No one pays their taxes. Not business, not individuals. Tax collection is a huge problem. You know how Republicans want to keep cutting taxes, kinda the same thing.
Second, they have huge bureaucratic problem. Everyone goes to work for the government or expects to get a job from the government. So everyone has to justify themselves so doing business in Greece is a nightmare because of the bureaucratic maze they have to run through to get anything done. I know the Republicans keep saying they want a smaller government and less government but when Bush was elected and the Republicans controlled both houses they had a list of 100 government agencies they wanted to cut or reduce funding. Know what happened, no one got their funding cut and none of the agencies were cut. They in fact got more funding from the Republicans.
The sad thing is that here in the USA the immigrant class that starts the most small business are the Greek.
Their issues have nothing to do with socialism and redistribution.
Originally Posted by BigLouie
You inadvertently hit the nail on the head with the part of your post highlighted in red, which makes a point contrary to that you apparently intended.
You are correct that a very large percentage of the Greek workforce indeed works for the government. And they have always been able to count on retiring at an early age with full pension benefits, too. In fact, the country isn't much more than a pension/entitlement state.
People engaged in 'hazardous' occupations get to retire at 50 or 55 with FULL pension benefits. One occupation deemed 'hazardous' in Greece is hairdresser, because they work with potentially toxic dyes. You can't make this shit up.
All this adds up to a SHITLOAD of redistribution.
You're right about the fact that there's a bureaucratic maze, though. But that's a natural consequence of creating too fucking much government, isn't it?
The Greek private sector and export sector simply aren't big enough and strong enough to support all the cronyism and vote-buying.