Why the Cash Economy in Greece May Be Ending
Many believe we have a teetering world economy, even without Greece as an indicator. Now Greece is looming ever larger as a critical if unknown actor. It is mostly considered a bad one, for the entire European, and even the worldwide, financial system and economy. The Greek economy is approaching an almost unprecedented standstill. For clear reasons it probably will never get back to a “normal” or desirable level of consumption. When stepping back from witnessing the daily crisis, it would appear timely to ask what are the real factors in the big picture? Was the crisis brought on just by second-rate policies combined with inefficiency, corruption, and oppression?
Or have longer-term characteristics of industrialism and Western Civilization’s relentless, aggressive growth caught up with us to undermine our future as a species? If so, the discussion about what’s wrong and how to deal with it has to change, and soon. In this discussion a different impression of Greece and its potential emerges. The conventional wisdom that the Greek economy is simply on its death bed is very rarely set aside.
As an observer of Greece who has spent long chunks of time enjoying the country and its people, I’ve still not had a clear grasp of the state of the nation’s precarious finances and interesting politics. But I am not shy about pointing out irritating facts such as that the consumer economy is clearly unsustainable, and that the eco connection in economy, ecology and ecosystem is perhaps the major fact of life — denied or ignored to everyone’s peril.
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