Effectively. In their infinite wisdom the forces behind the troika decided to squeeze Greece until the pips squeaked because it had become over indebted and insolvent.
The stringent austerity has brought about a collapse of the Greek economy, plunging the country into Depression conditions and growing unemployment (by some expected to reach 30% this year).
Nevertheless the Samaras’ “teachers’ pet” government has pledged to increase revenue by at least another 2 billion or so. In a shrinking economy, while shielding tax evaders and above all shielding those shielding tax evaders such as Vangelis Venizelos. Who, coincidentally, is leader of one of the parties supporting the Samaras government so it is therefore expedient to shield him.
Now, in their brilliance, in order to raise revenue they have slapped an exorbitant tax on heating fuel. In plane English (and simple economics of which it appears they are incapable) they have priced heating fuel (and natural gas, if with a slightly lesser tax) out of the market. As a result, people have turned to open fires, log stoves and such, burning whatever they can get their hands on so as not to freeze.
This, surprise surprise has led to a growing pollution problem, producing smog and such. At the same time, revenue from fuel consumption has collapsed since no one can afford it any more. So not only has the object of the exercise failed (increased revenue) but a further severe pollution/health problem has been created.
The simple answer would be, reduce the tax significantly and thereby collect far more in taxes than you are now and deal with the pollution problem. Not to mention allowing people to heat themselves. But no. No. here too the Samaras regime follows European practice. Which is:
Never admit you have been wrong about anything! And never try to repair the damage you have done.
So Mr Stournaras refuses to budge on the hefty tax, because, he says “it is a memorandum obligation” and we cannot jeopardize the credibility we have gained (!) (exclamation mark on two counts: what credibility do they imagine they have gained and with whom? and the memorandum obligation he is referring to is designed to raise revenue, I would imagine, and not per se to ruin the health and jeopardize the lives of the people.)
Oh, and since the pollution is becoming very dangerous, the government has suggested that perhaps they should ban open fires and such to contain it. In other words deprive the population of all and any means of heating.
Now Greece has a very benign climate. Which is one of the reasons analysts through the ages have said, why philosophy flourished there. Nevertheless, winter does bring the cold and the snows and the sleet with it. Not for as long as in northern Europe perhaps, but long enough for people to suffer and die from the cold.
We are entering zero and sub zero temperatures at the moment, and being scolded by those in power for burning anything we can find to keep warm. But not for a moment are they even considering the obvious. Lower the consumption tax on fuel.
So since it is quite obvious that this measure is not only not raising tax revenue, but actually slashing such revenue from what it would have been with a lower tax rate, and also causing added acute pain and suffering on the populace, why is the Samaras/Stournaras regime insisting on it?
The only thing this achieves is depriving Greeks of one more human right. The right to keep warm and healthy in winter. The right to work has been abolished. The right to fair pay has been abolished. The right to health care has been abolished. The right to education is also being abolished. So now we are on to abolishing the basic necessities of food and heating.
Had such pain been inflicted on a an African or Asian country, and so wantonly, with such malice and obvious desire to cause pain and suffering rather than achieve anything else by it, the whole of the so called civilized world would have been up in arms over it.
Now, not only does no one in the so called civilized world gives a hoot over this human tragedy, but the Greeks are being continually scolded and vilified over it. So called economists (not real ones) churn out all sorts of nonsense why this policy should be continued (till the Greek population has been decimated and reduced to pauper status perhaps?) and the Samaras regime preens itself that it has regained “credibility” and god forbid that we should risk losing it again! (Stournaras).
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” *
Will heads really have to roll before sense and a modicum of the humanity Europe used to pride itself for is restored?
*- Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1.4.90), Marcellus to Horatio