I have had issues in the past where the travel agent goofed up and did not process payments to the Hotel I was staying at on time as they were supposed to.
In those cases having a credit card that you can present to the Hotel while the payment gets processed is quite invaluable.
You are the one who thinks being poor under the USSR gives you some sort of immunity from spending too much. You probably think Greeks were wealthy 35 years ago.
Actually the poor are the easiest to swindle when the money spigots open up and they get easy to access to cheap credit.
Something they learned from after collapse of USSR. And they know how to live frugally and save for a rainy day. Another thing they learned from USSR days.
Oh do they? I think at least one of those countries only joined the Eurozone recently. We'll talk again in a decade to see how low their debt is once the money spigots open up. If Russia hasn't clawed them back again by then. Then your little political "Spring" will end as well.
Oh and I'm not Greek. You should also look at yourself in the mirror. There are plenty of demagogues around.
Tsipras should have just rejected the deal. It was coercive and made in bad faith.
Hmmm... Well Web 2.0 did kill of a lot of businesses like book stores which used to employ a lot of people. The banking sector might be next. Do you really need all those brick and mortar buildings with people in them? Not to mention logistics. A lot of unemployed truck drivers if automated trucks come into play.
As for the 1930s... uh.... Perhaps decent automobiles. Synthetic rubber and nylon killed a lot of jobs from people harvesting rubber trees and taking care of silkworms and shit like that but I guess most of the jobs were not in the USA to begin with. Then there's ammonia fertilizer and tractors releasing people from farming I guess.
Not just the washing machine. Even water plumbing alone saves time by not needing to carry water from the river and fountains and shit like that every time you need water to drink or take a bath. Dishwasher. Same. The vacuum cleaner is more debatable since you actually need to attend to it. Unless its something like a Roomba. But those are less than perfect.
The thing is the cost of living in Greece is not the same.
If people get depressed salaries, as the EU is insisting (again), prices will come down in the long run sure but the adjustment is not immediate. It will take years and meanwhile people have to eat and live somewhere with reduced income. There is 25% unemployment in Greece and unemployment benefits were cut as well. People are starving and dying in Greece. A lot prefer to kill themselves rather than go on living. But people do not matter right? What matters is numbers with pretty little EURs in them.
At the same time as salaries are to be cut the EU wants Greece to increase food tax from 13% to 23% VAT while medicine VAT remains 13%. I guess this is because the medicines are imported from Germany while the food comes from other poor southern European countries but maybe this is just me being snarky here. Surely this is an humanitarian gesture. As is the refusal of the EU to cut the Greek military budget which, surprise surprise, spent a lot of money buying Germans military hardware. Another coincidence must be that Mr. Schäuble, the moral statesman he is, was kicked a couple of years back from the CDU in a weapon sales kickback corruption scandal in Germany.
If you don't call this a humanitarian crisis I don't know what you can call it. People lie penniless in the streets but I guess the rich can still use their ATMs so everything must be ok I guess.
Estonia and Slovakia don't need money either because Albania is worse or Ethiopia is worse. Do you see the ridiculousness of this argument?
Varoufakis did not want more loans he wanted a debt write-off or extension of payments which is something different. The result of current EU policy is what will keep resulting in more and more loans in perpetuity as the Greek debt cannot be paid off at the same time you kill the Greek economy. Unemployed people do not generate wealth.
But as long as it allows the banker bosses of the EU to asset strip southern Europe I guess it is ok.
I have a suggestion of a transsexual I would actually like reading an interview about in Slashdot. Sophie Wilson (ARM chip designer). I respect that work.
What I do not respect is reading about people who make their career around politically correct bullshit and produce nothing of value. This isn't news for nerds and it isn't stuff that matters.
what's so tyrannical of a country refusing to give greeks earlier pensions than they give to their own citizens
Nonsense. 92% of the loan money is used to pay interest on previous loans and prop up Greek banks which are heavily indebted to Central European banks. No money goes into pensions. Also the Greeks have increased their retirement age several times already. Heck even Syriza said they were receptive to increasing the retirement age for the 3rd time now. Ever since they were elected. What they were not in favor was in doing more cuts to previously agreed and granted pensions.
How come the Greek government has to maintain their previous obligations to foreign creditors but is fine to break previous obligations to its own citizens?
You are right. It isn't debtors prison. It's indentured servitude. Expect this one doesn't have a fixed time limit. It's "until the debt is payed back" which might as well be never.
You are wrong. The whole of Europe is sick. Eventually Germany will realize they killed all the export clients they had and their remaining trade partner is China, with whom they have a trade deficit. Then the cows will come home.
Slashdot Mirror
I have had issues in the past where the travel agent goofed up and did not process payments to the Hotel I was staying at on time as they were supposed to.
In those cases having a credit card that you can present to the Hotel while the payment gets processed is quite invaluable.
You are the one who thinks being poor under the USSR gives you some sort of immunity from spending too much. You probably think Greeks were wealthy 35 years ago.
Actually the poor are the easiest to swindle when the money spigots open up and they get easy to access to cheap credit.
Spain's government debt to GDP ratio was 36.1% before the crisis. Slovakia's debt is 53.6% of GDP right now. Like I said. See you in a decade.
Something they learned from after collapse of USSR. And they know how to live frugally and save for a rainy day. Another thing they learned from USSR days.
Oh do they? I think at least one of those countries only joined the Eurozone recently. We'll talk again in a decade to see how low their debt is once the money spigots open up. If Russia hasn't clawed them back again by then. Then your little political "Spring" will end as well.
Oh and I'm not Greek. You should also look at yourself in the mirror. There are plenty of demagogues around.
Tsipras should have just rejected the deal. It was coercive and made in bad faith.
Hmmm... Well Web 2.0 did kill of a lot of businesses like book stores which used to employ a lot of people. The banking sector might be next. Do you really need all those brick and mortar buildings with people in them? Not to mention logistics. A lot of unemployed truck drivers if automated trucks come into play.
As for the 1930s... uh.... Perhaps decent automobiles. Synthetic rubber and nylon killed a lot of jobs from people harvesting rubber trees and taking care of silkworms and shit like that but I guess most of the jobs were not in the USA to begin with. Then there's ammonia fertilizer and tractors releasing people from farming I guess.
Read about the Spacer vs Earther war in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series.
Not just the washing machine. Even water plumbing alone saves time by not needing to carry water from the river and fountains and shit like that every time you need water to drink or take a bath. Dishwasher. Same. The vacuum cleaner is more debatable since you actually need to attend to it. Unless its something like a Roomba. But those are less than perfect.
Only if there's wealth redistribution.
http://www.statista.com/statis...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The thing is the cost of living in Greece is not the same.
If people get depressed salaries, as the EU is insisting (again), prices will come down in the long run sure but the adjustment is not immediate. It will take years and meanwhile people have to eat and live somewhere with reduced income. There is 25% unemployment in Greece and unemployment benefits were cut as well. People are starving and dying in Greece. A lot prefer to kill themselves rather than go on living. But people do not matter right? What matters is numbers with pretty little EURs in them.
At the same time as salaries are to be cut the EU wants Greece to increase food tax from 13% to 23% VAT while medicine VAT remains 13%. I guess this is because the medicines are imported from Germany while the food comes from other poor southern European countries but maybe this is just me being snarky here. Surely this is an humanitarian gesture. As is the refusal of the EU to cut the Greek military budget which, surprise surprise, spent a lot of money buying Germans military hardware. Another coincidence must be that Mr. Schäuble, the moral statesman he is, was kicked a couple of years back from the CDU in a weapon sales kickback corruption scandal in Germany.
If you don't call this a humanitarian crisis I don't know what you can call it. People lie penniless in the streets but I guess the rich can still use their ATMs so everything must be ok I guess.
Estonia and Slovakia don't need money either because Albania is worse or Ethiopia is worse. Do you see the ridiculousness of this argument?
Varoufakis did not want more loans he wanted a debt write-off or extension of payments which is something different. The result of current EU policy is what will keep resulting in more and more loans in perpetuity as the Greek debt cannot be paid off at the same time you kill the Greek economy. Unemployed people do not generate wealth.
But as long as it allows the banker bosses of the EU to asset strip southern Europe I guess it is ok.
PS: I would have also liked to read an interview with Dan Bunten but she's dead now. RIP.
I have a suggestion of a transsexual I would actually like reading an interview about in Slashdot. Sophie Wilson (ARM chip designer). I respect that work.
What I do not respect is reading about people who make their career around politically correct bullshit and produce nothing of value. This isn't news for nerds and it isn't stuff that matters.
No kidding. When I read the summary of her wonderful achievements all I could think was DUH. Is this stuff that matters? Really Slashdot?
I am sure there are plenty of other women you could interview who actually did something that matters in the tech world.
Still can't find anything. I can't read Estonian.
I have read all his speeches and I didn't find any such thing anywhere.
what's so tyrannical of a country refusing to give greeks earlier pensions than they give to their own citizens
Nonsense. 92% of the loan money is used to pay interest on previous loans and prop up Greek banks which are heavily indebted to Central European banks. No money goes into pensions. Also the Greeks have increased their retirement age several times already. Heck even Syriza said they were receptive to increasing the retirement age for the 3rd time now. Ever since they were elected. What they were not in favor was in doing more cuts to previously agreed and granted pensions.
How come the Greek government has to maintain their previous obligations to foreign creditors but is fine to break previous obligations to its own citizens?
That's typical German. They "pay" with someone else's money.
No the plan is to rape and plunder Greek assets.
You would be wrong. Germany is economically stronger but military weaker than a lot of European countries.
Yes the remaining third went to Greek banks who are indebted to foreign banks. It's all brilliant really.
You are right. It isn't debtors prison. It's indentured servitude. Expect this one doesn't have a fixed time limit. It's "until the debt is payed back" which might as well be never.
You are wrong. The whole of Europe is sick. Eventually Germany will realize they killed all the export clients they had and their remaining trade partner is China, with whom they have a trade deficit. Then the cows will come home.
one of the world's largest shipping powers
Were one. Past tense.
the largest economy in the Balkans
Which isn't much considering the whole place is in the shitter.
No it works in the USA because the economy is integrated and you have a Federal Government.