Poor Greece – Rich Greeks
and Romania follows…

(part 3, for part 2 please press here, for part 1 please press here)

“What is a Real Estate investment for me”

“Real Estate is in my blood. I want to have my own home and ideally a second one for the summer. Also a home for each of my children is a life target too”. This concept drove the Greek market for decades. There are no major developers and no foreigners too, the whole market was and still is in the hands of small companies. There are many top professionals but also plenty of amateurs, in a completely unorganized market, where the price of the contract is usually not the real one and all people know it, but the State is fine with it! “The objective price is different than the market price”, with the objective one representing the price which the State uses, so as to calculate the taxes.

After a period of growth in several phases (fueled by billions of loans by the Greek banks), the market was frozen since 2006. That was the first sign that the party was over. But noone wanted to hear. In 2010 we reached 3 - 4 years without any transaction at all in many areas of the country, but officially the prices are the same, no serious deduction in papers. There are too many people asking for crazy numbers “because this is how I

evaluate my property”… (while this property usually has illegal sq.m., messy papers and God knows what else)

“We are all guilty, so noone can really complain”

In the end Greeks decided: All citizens were more or less guilty of something, one for his illegal home, another for not declaring taxes, someone else for stealing his clients, or blackmailing the society so as to have higher salary. This brought a “balance”, but what kind of balance was that? Greece has the strictest laws in Europe, so strict that very few people respect them and the State does not establish the order, “because it is a pity to punish someone so rough” (as media screams every day). Noone could blame the other. Everyone was guilty of something, in the eyes of the rest.

PS. When Greeks hear Romanians complaining about politicians, they laugh loudly. A big part of Greek politicians has proved throughout the years that we are the World’s leaders in all possible tricks

Overall result

Greece lost its chance to modernize its economy. Less than half of European Funds were spent in the right direction. Greek industry died and the country remained without defense towards all possible changes in the World economy. Most people nowadays are still not trained and too many try to go on, following doubtful methods, avoiding hard work by all means. If someone works, proceeds, creates wealth and becomes rich by working, he is considered a thief by millions of others, he is someone to blame…

I would say that only 1/3 of Greeks remain healthy thinkers, while the 2/3 still believe that they deserve a better status of life, refusing to work so as to obtain it though. Greece has been split in two. The part of progress, of hard work, of measurable results and efforts and the other part, which is afraid of all changes and would like so much to find a solution so as to survive for another 5 - 10 years without hard work. “And then we will see…”

Economy built in the absolutely wrong environment

Today’s problems begin from the past and from all these that I described to you. Greece reached to 300 billion euro debts, 120% of Gross Domestic Product, while the same figure was almost half in 2004 (168) and again half just another 5 - 6 years before. When you don’t act and let the problems become gigantic, this is what happens. Let us imagine that tomorrow morning God would have sent to Greece 300 billion euro and the whole debt would vanish. With the way that the Greek economy has been built, most experts bet that the same debt would have been collected again in just 7 - 10 years!

Greece is the typical result of the following mixture of:

• Intelligent people, being let free to enlarge all their drawbacks.
• Politicians without clear vision (in 90% of cases).
• European money spent wrong, in their majority
• Endless wrong approaches of what “Freedom” really means, literally.
• People relaxing, knowing their abilities and the tremendous potential the country has, losing all chances.
• Completely lost trust to the State and its representatives by whoever is not part of the “system”.
• Appreciation of the one who earns money, ideally by stealing the State. (but not if he steals from other people, this is considered a theft, thank God).

Two countries in one…

Today Greece is split in two:

• There is a minority that works hard and creates. While the majority simply searches for easy solutions.
• There is a minority that produces and exports all around the World. While the majority considers this “a sin” and tries to block it by all means.
• There is a growing minority of people who want a better country, who respect the rules, who feel the need of improvement. While there is still a majority who wants everything to remain the same, the game to continue being played without rules.
• There is a minority which leads the way, with innovative ideas, investments and approach of life and business. While there majority cares only about “a connection to help me enter in the State”.
• There is a minority of politicians who want to create a better country and a majority bounded by the thousands of small interests of several social groups. The ones who want to move the country ahead and fight the interests and the ones who get blocked between the interests of the big countries, who squeeze Greece for their own interest each of them.

Poor Greece - Rich Greeks

Residents of Central or Northern Europe always remain speechless when they see the level of life that Greeks enjoy. Even nowadays, with many people suffering indeed, the Greeks’ wealth is visible. Not like in the past, but there are still some millions who live good, very good even with European standards. Most of them simply did not pay high taxes over the previous years.

In the same time, with so many thousands of people severely rob the Greek State, almost always remaining untouched, it was normal for the country’s economy to collapse. There was always the impression that “in the end someone will save us, we will find a way to trick them”. Greece ended poor. Very poor…

What will happen to Greece from now on?

Measures, more measures and even more measures. The big ones of Europe will use Greece as an example for the rest of the countries, to threaten them to solve their problems NOW. Middle class will face difficult times over the following three years, but the danger is bigger. If my mother country enters into the core of the problems and solves the basic ones, then in few years it will recover for good. If Greece does not solve its REAL problems this period, it will be blocked in a long period of crisis, longer than we expect.

A lesson Romania MUST learn. If not, it will follow…

If you read all the text until here, you have probably made the comparison between Greece and Romania. Two blessed countries, with too many common advantages but also an increasing number of common mistakes. While many Greeks try to wake up from the “bad dream” they lives over the last decades, Romanians appear ready to enter into big trouble. They follow all possible mistakes that Greeks in the last 30 years.

Being a Greek, I really hope that my mother country will finally wake up, fight and win. But also being here since 2004, I really hope that Romania will do the same. Before it will end up like Greece, Romania can learn by Greece’s mistakes and choose another path. If Romanians will let things loose, like Greeks did, then the result will be really negative.

Romania can have a very positive future, if big mistakes will be avoided and if correct measures will be undertaken in the near future. It is not just the politicians who will create this future. Look at the mirror and realize who else will be part of it…

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