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There are more good ones that bad ones out there. And even the bad ones are better than what other countries produce.

 

I think the same, but the taste could be acquired. I like a lot of Belgian and Dutch beers as well. The best still comes from Bavaria. The one thing I have to hand to the Bavarians.

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In short: A socialist government has caved in to the pressure by largely conservative governments in the rest of Europe, mainly Germany. They have to save money by any means instead of investing in new infrastructure. There have been many mistakes on all sides, and in the end, Europe will pay for Greece's failings without an end to this shifting of money in sight. Only losers on all sides.

 

The Euro, a shared currency, was a big mistake without shared economics and taxation.

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So what's happening over there now? I don't really follow world news. Like, at all. Typical American that I am.

 

Additional: I know they're broke, and people have been trying to start crowdfunding, of all things, to raise money for Greece. I wish I was joking. 

From what I understand, Greece's government lied about their debt, which allowed them into the Euro back in 2004(?). Eventually that lie caught up to them, and now are trying to get back in.

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From what I understand, Greece's government lied about their debt, which allowed them into the Euro back in 2004(?). Eventually that lie caught up to them, and now are trying to get back in.

 

I doubt they actively lied. But Greece has a large corruption problem, while the rest of Europe wanted them in the Euro. We, the rest of Europe, probably didn't look to hard either.

 

I know they're broke, and people have been trying to start crowdfunding, of all things, to raise money for Greece. I wish I was joking. 

 

True, although just a publicity stunt. They wanted to raise 1,6 billion Euro, but Greece need 320 billions.

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True, although just a publicity stunt. They wanted to raise 1,6 billion Euro, but Greece need 320 billions.

 

So if Europe needs to bail them out of this, what would it mean to the rest of Europe? Higher taxes? Unexplained bills? I'm curious as to what the ramifications would be for the general populace.

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All else fails, just blame the new guy in charge of paper shredding. :P

 

Oh, you follow the NSU process, too?

 

So if Europe needs to bail them out of this, what would it mean to the rest of Europe? Higher taxes? Unexplained bills? I'm curious as to what the ramifications would be for the general populace.

 

I can only speak for Germany. The last payments for Greece were paid from the tax surplus. That means no investments into our own infrastructure and economy and no pay rises or payments for our lower classes. The Germans are a little pissed that our retirement age is 67 and likely to be raised soon, while Greeks retire at 60 and fight against any raise of that age while demanding money from us. That's not really a fair complaint but understandable.

 

Germany is well off. We can pay, we're just miffed that we have to. Other countries have it harder.

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Oh, you follow the NSU process, too?

They only vaguely went over that in my college Economics class. ;)

 

 

I can only speak for Germany. The last payments for Greece were paid from the tax surplus. That means no investments into our own infrastructure and economy and no pay rises or payments for our lower classes. The Germans are a little pissed that our retirement age is 67 and likely to be raised soon, while Greeks retire at 60 and fight against any raise of that age while demanding money from us. That's not really a fair complaint but understandable.

 

Germany is well off. We can pay, we're just miffed that we have to. Other countries have it harder.

 

I honestly had no idea Germany was so much better off.  But that said, I suppose it does mean others would look to it for support.  I'd be pretty pissed too if that much of my country's population couldn't get a pay raise for so long either.

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We have that here too, but on a more personal level. An entire segment of the population that benefits from social welfare, but refuses to work, and still walk around with luxury items that I paid for in the first place with my taxes. But, you know... business as usual in government ;)

 

I'm not sure that's a fair comparison either.

 

I honestly had no idea Germany was so much better off.  But that said, I suppose it does mean others would look to it for support.  I'd be pretty pissed too if that much of my country's population couldn't get a pay raise for so long either.

 

To be fair, part of our wealth comes from exporting to those European countries we now have to save. The real art of the German politicians is saving our strong economy by saving Greece's weak one (which we can totally afford without a problem) and marketing it to our own populace as some big sacrifice so that we're angry at the Greeks instead of our own banks and economists who caused the whole mess.

 

They only vaguely went over that in my college Economics class. ;)

 

Now I'm curious what you think I'm talking about, because I made a kind of in-joke: A trio of German mass murderers called the NSU (National Socialist Underground) has been caught some years ago, and it turned out that the legal prosecution had turned a blind eye to the public murders of dozens of immigrants all over Germany. Those police chiefs responsible couldn't be found or persecuted because all documents were mistakenly destroyed mere hours before the whole thing blew up. Mysterious.

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Oh, you follow the NSU process, too?

 

 

I can only speak for Germany. The last payments for Greece were paid from the tax surplus. That means no investments into our own infrastructure and economy and no pay rises or payments for our lower classes. The Germans are a little pissed that our retirement age is 67 and likely to be raised soon, while Greeks retire at 60 and fight against any raise of that age while demanding money from us. That's not really a fair complaint but understandable.

 

Germany is well off. We can pay, we're just miffed that we have to. Other countries have it harder.

 

That, and add to it that our goverment is incompetent and are protecting the even more incompetent idiots. They should suck it up and admit they failed. (basically, we have a system that allows those who need specialized personal medical help (think epilepsy and things like that) take some money from a pool to pay for the medical help. But because there were some fraud cases they did rework the system with MORE BUREAUCRACY (which obviously fixes fraud :rolleyes: ) and now there are issues with people getting said money late or not. Add to this crappy IT stuff, and you kinda get the picture. It's a shitty cesspool.

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I can only speak for Germany. The last payments for Greece were paid from the tax surplus. That means no investments into our own infrastructure and economy and no pay rises or payments for our lower classes. The Germans are a little pissed that our retirement age is 67 and likely to be raised soon, while Greeks retire at 60 and fight against any raise of that age while demanding money from us. That's not really a fair complaint but understandable.

 

Finland is the same I think 67 and they are raising that every year 

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Probably not. But I hardly get to vent my own frustrations anymore. Everything is work related. 

 

Granted. Although complaining that everything is work related while always claiming that you're actually like to work that much, seems a little ironic.

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