A basic rule of ” Do not spend more that what you make” was abandoned from the Greek governments in Greece for 30 years. Some made a lot of money during this period, some were not that lucky. Now the bills are here, but nobody wants to pay them. The retirement system cannot be sustained as is. 3 workers cannot support 5 retirees. The youth are not in Greece. They are working and paying taxes out of Greece The politicians caress the voters, promising what the mass wants to hear and now we are in a stage of the unknown. No one wants to hear the truth. No one wants to compromise. Even if the European Union helps Greece with another loan, in a few years Greece will be in the same situation if the politicians do not correct what is wrong but ignore it for political gain.

Maybe we even shared a beer back then in the ‘good old days’!
Greece needs help – and I don’t mean bailouts. The Country makes so many basic, elementary mistakes. Mistakes even a first year economics or marketing student wouldn’t make. Maybe that’s because for 40 years and more, 2 political ‘Dynasties’ kept the rest of the country fat, dumb and happy. Spoon-fed them what they needed and turned blind eyes to the corruption. Now, nobody wants to do anything but leave for America or Australia – It’s sad and it’s shocking.

Back in the sixties and seventies – and maybe the eighties, tourists came here to experience ‘Greekness’.
That is absolutely true. I was working in a hotel at that period. Now vacation in Greece is like any other vacation. The quality of people was different then. Most of them from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany. Educated and well financed. But also Greece was different. Greeks respected the foreigner, the tourist. Greeks now feel that the tourists are obligated to them and not the other way around.