Greek civil war, when not if

[Warren Dew]

Up from 9% from before austerity was imposed.

No question that the tax increases imposed by socialist PASOK under austerity from 2009 to 2012 were disastrous.

Since Samaras and New Democracy have put a stop to those, and even managed to negotiate a small decrease in some taxes with the troika, the economy has been turning around, though. Their planned more substantial tax rate cuts would have improved the economy more rapidly, had they remained in power.

[pErvinalia]

Up from 9% from before austerity was imposed.

No question that the tax increases imposed by socialist PASOK under austerity from 2009 to 2012 were disastrous.

Lol, you can't really believe this bs, can you? Mass firings that destroyed the spending base of the economy is what caused all the problems. When the majority of your population aren't spending money (because they are unemployed, or under-employed), then the economy will tank. As the economy tanks, you get more unemployment. And the cycle continues.

Not to mention that the tax increases WERE MANDATED BY THE CONDITIONS OF THE EU BAILOUT!

Since Samaras and New Democracy have put a stop to those, and even managed to negotiate a small decrease in some taxes with the troika, the economy has been turning around, though. Their planned more substantial tax rate cuts would have improved the economy more rapidly, had they remained in power.

Bollocks. Reducing revenue in a broke economy doesn't fix the economy. You need to boost spending to come out of the recession. That's what Australia (and the US under Obama, eventually) did. That's why Australia never went into recession, while places like the UK which adopted harsh austerity suffered a long recession.

[Svartalf]

Truth to tell, a lot of state employees did not really do their job and had another job on the side, essentially getting state money for no good reason

[pErvinalia]

Sure, but that doesn't negate that fact that the economy collapsed because of a lack of spending because so many people were chucked out of their jobs.

[Warren Dew]

Up from 9% from before austerity was imposed.

No question that the tax increases imposed by socialist PASOK under austerity from 2009 to 2012 were disastrous.

Lol, you can't really believe this bs, can you? Mass firings that destroyed the spending base of the economy is what caused all the problems. When the majority of your population aren't spending money (because they are unemployed, or under-employed), then the economy will tank. As the economy tanks, you get more unemployment. And the cycle continues.

The evidence shows otherwise. Cutting spending while increasing tax rates increased unemployment to over 25%. Continuing to cut spending while decreasing tax rates reversed the unemployment trend. Clearly cutting spending was not the problem.

Not to mention that the tax increases WERE MANDATED BY THE CONDITIONS OF THE EU BAILOUT!

The EU mandated a combination of spending cuts and tax rate increases. PASOK allocated the total roughly evenly, which is what caused the problem. Samaras chose to deepen the spending cuts while relieving the tax rates, which started a recovery.

Since Samaras and New Democracy have put a stop to those, and even managed to negotiate a small decrease in some taxes with the troika, the economy has been turning around, though. Their planned more substantial tax rate cuts would have improved the economy more rapidly, had they remained in power.

Bollocks. Reducing revenue in a broke economy doesn't fix the economy. You need to boost spending to come out of the recession. That's what Australia (and the US under Obama, eventually) did. That's why Australia never went into recession, while places like the UK which adopted harsh austerity suffered a long recession.

Above a certain tax rate, cutting tax rates increases revenue rather than decreasing it. This is what has happened in the case of Greece.