You have to factor in that we have an extremely high unemployment rate (23.5%) and after the austerity measures the basic wage is about 550 euro/month. Many, if

You have to factor in that we have an extremely high unemployment rate (23.5%) and after the austerity measures the basic wage is about 550 euro/month. Many, if not most, companies took advantage of this basic wage change and forced it upon their employees or replaced them with new ones (which can't ask for more). Also another big part of the workforce is on flexible-hours, which means they may go as low as 120 euro per month. The property tax can be about 200 euro / year for relatively small apartments in lower class neighborhoods and rise pretty fast (e.g 800 euros / month) for better neighborhoods. If you own the land (you aren't leaving in an apartment) things go south even faster. Also the property tax doesn't consider any special cases. For example you could have build your house 60 years ago in a remote location, now rich people came to leave around you and you have to pay 6000 euros / year on a 600 euro / month pension.