Originally Posted by
miles
How is a referendum a smokescreen of democracy? What we have in our countries are smokescreens. Bankers massively increase national debt and then people pay in the form of austerity. No prosecutions for fraud, no new regulations in place to control the industry etc. That is a smokescreen of democracy. A referendum is opening the discussion in a truly democratic way.
Of course defaulting will make Greece a pariah in terms of international lending and predatory economic practices, but people will still trade with Greek corporations that have something to offer. And if we are to criticize the Greek ability to collect taxes, then we need to go back to why Greece was allowed to join the EU in the first place. People turned a blind eye to a country that has never really had control over those things. It's pretty difficult when the country is is essentially a massive collection of islands.
Greece cannot afford to pay back the debt and considering a large part of it was not the responsibility of the Greek people they should have the choice to shun it and that is what I believe they will do and rightly so. A fresh start and a lesson duly earned. Not 30 years of punishment and making the children pay just to make international finance richer having made stupid loans.
Unfortunately, the discussion has been open a long time, and a lot of bad decisions have already been made without consulting the people of Greece to get them to this position. Ask the man on the street there how many times they have been consulted on the previous decisions. Fuck up #1....no. Fuck up #2....no. Fuck up #3....no. etc.
The reason its a smokescreen is that the PM is up against the wall, and whichever way he chooses to go, he's going to get a massive amount of flak that will almost certainly end his political career. He isn't calling a referendum out of a desire to give people a voice. He's not calling it because it is in the name of democracy. He's calling it in a cowardly act to try and avoid making a decision that every other decision he's made without consultation has led to. It is a sleazy sly way of giving the appearance of self-control and democracy, while trying to avoid taking the responsibility.
And in terms of the consequences for Greece, choosing not to repay the loans isn't a cure all. They won't be allowed to stay in the Euro, for a start. Thus they'll be sent back to the Drachma. If we think we've got bad inflation, wait till Greece start seeing their currency devalued, as the balance of imports will be significantly more than the balance of exports. Those Greek corporations that will still want to trade internationally will find it difficult to do so, because their own costs within Greece will be spiralling with double-digit inflation, they'll probably be forced to use the Euro as a defacto currency simply for something stable to trade with, but many of those corporations will either leave Greece, or be seriously struggling themselves.
The fact is that the PM is giving two options to the people that will likely lead to very similar results. A crippled state where austerity is going to become the norm for decades to come.
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