Wouldn’t Grexit be bad for me personally? Yes. But why I support it 100% anyway

Comments

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   wildrides

   5 April 2015, 05:22

   Your deluded ………….. the life of the Greek olive farmer is no different to the plight of the UK upland hill sheep farmer ………… infact it is a lot better because the climate is better . All the comments you make towards lack of local rural housing / jobs and the young drifting to the cities for jobs apply equally to upland UK and whats more this has always been the case , for HUNDREDS of years . Land quality is what determines its ultimate use and its ultimate economic output per hectare and hence the number of family units it can support. Land quality involves many factors , such as soil type, rainfall, topography , climate , local weather , soil depth , transport links , beauty for tourism . Wake up and smell the coffee Winnifroth ……….. upland Britain is no different and has all the same problems and local variations in land quality .Your just deluded to expect the rest of us to pay for the Greeks to default their debt . They can pay it back just like we did with the war debt we owed to the US . To say the ordinary Greeks are not responsible , but just a few “higher ups types was what done it Guv” is even more deluded. In this life if your not part of the solution then you are part of the problem and the Greek people elected their leaders , turned a blind eye to the corruption , etc etc . They are to blame ………. no one else . They should man up and take responsibility . Stop making out the Greeks to be some kind of special case , because they are not .

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   Mose Harper

   5 April 2015, 07:56

   I agree with Tom.The financial problems in Greece are nothing to do with the Greek people. Its not their fault they were screwed by corrupt and greedy politicians. It is wrong to expect them to pay.
   Essentially what has happened is a crime. The victims are the ones who supplied the debt. We should give them a crime number and tell them to suck it up.Next time they’ll be more careful who they lend money to. If my car gets stolen I don’t expect you to pay for it. Its only money, who cares?

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   Jimbo

   5 April 2015, 08:28

   Wildrides, the UK has its own debt issues and its own benefit culture:

   http://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/debtclock/unitedkingdom

   Were it not for our ability to print our own currency and have the Bank of England use it to buy up Gilts to the tune of some 30% of our sovereign bond markets in order to solve a liquidity crisis in 2008, it could be argued that the UK would already have seen a debt crisis not far off from being as bad as Greece’s. The only difference is that Greece is trapped in the straitjacket of the Euro and the UK is not. We can therefore debase our currency at will, and we have already done so.

   You too need to wake up and smell the coffee I think. ;)

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   drunken sailor

   5 April 2015, 12:39

   Grexit is just a symptom of the flawed concept that a single currency for multiple countries is a good idea. Yes it is handy for tourists, using cash. But these days the use of cash is diminishing. All business transactions are electronic and credit cards are accepted virtually everywhere.

   Different places dance to different economic tunes and unless there is a willingness for the richer places to pay for the poorer places, a single currency can’t work in the long term. The south of England pays for the north of England, but that is ok because we are all English. England pays for Scotland and Wales, but that is ok because we are all British, aren’t we? (I think a referendum in England about whether we wanted to keep Scotland could well have had a different result to the referendum in Scotland, where they did eventually work out which side their bread was buttered). The US did not have a single currency until decades after the US became the US. The West Germans paid a fortune for East Germany to become part of a unified Germany again, but that was ok because they were all German. The Germans do not want to pay for Greece or any of the other “lazy, inefficient” mostly southern nation. The Euro may have lasted longer (or the realisation that it was a fundamentally bad idea may have been achieved far sooner) if they had actually applied the rules that member countries needed to live by. They started to, but it became inconvenient for France to live by them so they ignored the rules at that point and that was the thin end of the wedge. They then bent the rules for nations who thought they wanted to join – Greece was just one nation that should never have been allowed to join, it was not just that Greece lied, the rules were bent and the lies were accepted, because those who thought the single currency would make one Europe and that one Europe was a good idea wanted to believe the lies.

   So Greece looks like being the first to show what a flawed idea the single currency was. For what it is worth I think they will kick the can down the road at least one more time, but eventually it is inevitable that a poorer country is going to crash out of the Euro and once one does the rest will start to follow.

   It is possible to chart the UK economic recovery from recession of late 80’s early 90’s from the day we crashed out of the ERM, for exactly the same reasons why Tom thinks Greece should crash out of the Euro. Tom talks about interest rate being 10% plus, they actually went up to 15% for a short while before we crashed out of the ERM.

   The bottom line is one size does not fit all. Yes it is going to be embarrassing for a lot of people to realise that fact and there will be several more years of denial of that fact and there will be pain as people come to terms with that fact, but it is an undeniable fact and the sooner people start to wake up to it the better for everyone.

   For what it is worth I don’t think UK should leave the EU. We should stay out of the Euro and we should exploit the very serious cracks that are showing to turn the EU back into a Common Market that draws on the good parts of having a broad based European common market and does away with the nonsense.

   10 Commandments < 100 words

   Gettysburg Address< 400 words

   EU regulations on the classification of cabbages > 4000 words.

   Once there is a realisation that things have gone in completely the wrong direction some good old British pragmatism and common sense can be brought to bear to get things headed in the right direction again. A lot of the European nations outside of Germany and France actually want us to be in the EU to achieve just that.

   Here endeth the Easter Sunday sermon on the evil and woes of the EU.

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   Rhubarb

   6 April 2015, 03:41

   If you were talking about a Grexit right at the beginning of the crises I might have agreed. However having been through so much pain already I am not sure now is the best time to exit. I suspect your idea of how much the currency would decline would actually be of a much higher magnitude and would lead to extremely high inflation which would effect your farmers as well as most of the population.
   Having lived through hyperinflation in Zimbabwe I know it has devastating effects especially those who have savings or are on fixed incomes such as pensions, especially the elderly. Therefore to look at your argument just from the position of a few farmers is rather misleading as it will have devastating effects on a much wider population. In any event I tend to agree with wildrides about the economics of farming in the modern world.
   As for the politicians all being at fault someone elected them in the first place and the electorate also seemed pretty relaxed about paying taxes and following regulations. In any event I am not sure the new lot, however well meaning, are any better as they seem pretty clueless of how the economy actually works.
   Portugal, Ireland and Spain seem to be coming out of similar difficulties following some pretty harsh measures so maybe Greece should follow the same course.
   To be honest I also think the theory that one size fits all isnt the brightest but once you have joined and then taken the pain, through a back door devaluation from a drop in living standards, to rely on another large devaluation on top of this could have terrible consequences on a lot more innocent people.
   But then what do I know.

   Rhubarb

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   The Knowledge

   6 April 2015, 07:33

   Drunken Sailor, you obviously have no concept of where Westminster gets all the money from to waste on London and the local area, the same result would have come from an English poll too as Westminster would not allow it’s greatest asset to escape. How would they pay for all those wasters on benefits and in the government without the HUGE ! income they take from Scotland every year.
   Perhaps you should stay away from dealing in shares if that is the height of your financial research, LMAO.
   Didn’t you notice that the nearer it came to the referendum the more desperate the rantings were from Westminster and how much they “LOVED SCOTLAND” lol,
   I don’t know what bubble you live in but I would guess you’re a Royalist Loving London Lunatic with rich parents who told you not waste efforts on research into things, but just say what you believe as if it is the truth, lol.
   Do you really think Westminster would care about Scotland if it didn’t provide it with about 75% of it’s income.
   I think Scotland understands how the Germans feel as per your quote: “The Germans do not want to pay for Greece or any of the other “lazy, inefficient” mostly southern nation
   Anyway, no point talking to muppets like you who can’t be bothered to do research, you’d rather just repeat the lame rantings you heard from one of your mates down the pub or on the BBC or some other Westmonster media feed.
   I’m also sure that you still wont do any research into this but will just post a reply showing more ignorance.
   LMAO, DYOR !!!

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   wolfcastle_22

   6 April 2015, 08:42

   The Knowledge – I take it you’re Scots….like me….but it’s not clear what way your swinging here…..you come across as pro SNP….those folk who said we’d be rich as kings on North sea oil…??? the same folk that say everybody’s welcome in Scotland (except the English)…..as we are non judgemental about race, colour or creed….Tory’s have ruined the Scottish NHS (SNP underspent last year on NHS up north…fact )….free education for all (except the english…again)……all those benefits scammers….seems no party wants to say enough is enough when it comes to that….except for if you’re working and lose your job…then you lose your home…survive on JS allowance….while others claim their bad tempered child is autistic…….along with the other 2….and live a life of Riley on benefits….all those things the SNP would stamp out….oh, sorry, no they wouldn’t….maybe the NHS underspend was to spend on Alex’s march to Independance….or the overspend on the Edinburgh trams as we move to being the greenest nation on earth (leading the way on renewable energy was Salmond’s words)….or the average speed cameras on the A9 that nobody wanted (when we want it dual carriage’d to Perth)…..no, you’re quite right….we’re safe in SNP hands

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   J P Spaghetti

   6 April 2015, 10:24

   The Knowledge and all – just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons, let’s not forget the debt owed to various provincial cities that were bombed to kingdom come (along with many of their citizens) during the second world war. Coventry is well known but other areas suffered more terribly – particularly port cities because of their strategic importance (and for this very reason and the associated propaganda value much was hushed up). In some cases 90% of buildings or so were levelled. This, of course, is still in living memory. How and when is that sort of debt repaid? I’m not sure the home counties accountancy belts are there as yet. In any event, one really needs to consider the bigger picture when weighing up the contribution to prosperity of particular regions within a sovereign nation. Just sayin’!

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   wildrides

   6 April 2015, 10:40

   OMG look out ………… the border reevers are on the site …………. lock up your daughters and your cattle and unblock the arrow slit windows on the third story .

   did anyone mention Flodden Field ?