At the top of my reading list is Michael Lewis' "Boomerang". An excerpt: Greece, Mr. Lewis writes, ran up astonishing debts — from high-paying government jobs and generous pensions, as well as waste, bribery and theft — that came to “about $1.2 trillion, or more than a quarter-million dollars for every working Greek.” In just the last 12 years, he says, “the wage bill of the Greek public sector has doubled, in real terms” with the average government job now paying almost three times the average private sector job. Those who work in jobs classified as “arduous” can retire and start collecting pensions, he adds, “as early as 55 for men and 50 for women”; more than 600 Greek professions have somehow managed “to get themselves classified as arduous: hairdressers, radio announcers, waiters, musicians, and on and on and on.” Mr. Lewis was making the rounds recently, hawking his book, and he had some rather unkind things to say about Greece and some high praise for Germany. Surprise, surprise. His narrative, which I found both entertaining and on point, was the recent financial follies was essentially a test of national character. A large pile of money (via credit) was placed in front of these countries. How did they react? Some, like Greece and Iceland, acted like children. Others, like Germany, were adults. Link
An article in Vanity Fair several months ago was astonishing regarding the situation in Greece. The government is profligate and the people think only fools pay taxes and cheat as much as they can.
Lewis has written articles for VF on this topic. Don't know, but he probably wrote those articles. Makes one wonder if some cultures really are kinda worthless? Italy, Greece anyone?
