Thursday, February 23, 2012

Some Greeks Might Have to Pay for Their Jobs

This may actually be a new first for humanity, an actual all time low, because it actually results in a lower net position for the worker than slavery.  Link at AtlanticWire here.

Question:  Has there ever been a lower economic point reached in the annals of recorded human history of work or employment?  I say not, I could be wrong perhaps and would be willing to stand corrected.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazing. What is even more amazing than the fact that some Europeans are willing to treat Greeks this way is that some Greeks are willing their fellow-Greeks this way. Has the groveling Greek technocracy no shame?

Ralph Musgrave said...

The ideal solution for PIGs is to devalue their currency, which can be done in effect by cutting wages AND prices in each PIG country. That does NOT greatly reduce living standards because most of the cost of stuff sold in e.g. Greece is the cost of Greek labour.

So in that “paying for your job” is effectively a wage cut which is passed on to the customer in the form of lower prices, “paying for your job” makes some sense.

Of course it’s easy to criticise the imposition of severe deflation on PIGs (including “paying for your job”). It’s obviously a chronic “solution”. But if anyone can come up with a better solution, they’ll get a Nobel Prize.

Tom Hickey said...

Ralph: The ideal solution for PIGs is to devalue their currency, which can be done in effect by cutting wages AND prices in each PIG country. That does NOT greatly reduce living standards because most of the cost of stuff sold in e.g. Greece is the cost of Greek labour.

This is the aim of imposed austerity. But getting there is the problem. Hard to see any regime surviving that.