Friday, April 27, 2012

The new Greek economy captured in one image

It's not a great photograph but its sole virtue is that its tells a story, and so illustrates so much of what is happening in Greece today and for that reason I posted it.

In it are all the elements of a new emerging economy that has been foisted upon Greece in the name of financial salvation. In the foreground is the child begger, no more than 11, I'd venture, his Fagin like "handler" (How Dickens serves us in times of need) just off frame at the entrance of the Ble patisserie.

Ble, which serves high end baked goods at the kind of prices that even new Yorkers/Parisians might balk at is, itself a perfect example of how the economy is going. Inside the employees haven't been paid for months and yet remain working, as they know giving up a job there means certain unemployment, a fact the supervisor hovering in the background is no doubt aware of.

300 euro per month wages, total absence of labour protection laws and rampant poverty are the fate that awaits other southern European economies adopting the kind of austerity measures that Greece has implemented in the last three years.

2 comments:

Aurelius said...

Great article. Mind the FB like link, it appears to be broken, making it impossible to share the post (at least for me)

ann arky said...

Where I differ from you is that I see the same conditions coming to all of Europe. It would suit the financial mafia and the corporate fascists to turn Europe into one large sweatshop allowing them to compete with the rest of the world.