4 ms·

Ask southern europeans.

• izacus 9y ago
  What do you want us to say? That Germany is first in line when it comes to privacy and customer protection?
• fasteo 9y ago
  Southern European here. Could you elaborate ?
  • LeonM 9y ago
    I think it's a reference to WW2
    • rimliu 9y ago
      I think this is reference to Greece and its perceotion that Germany is somehow responsible for their irrespondible spending.
      • ZenoArrow 9y ago
        The Greek debt crisis was as a result of using public money to bailout private banks. Whether that bailout was irresponsible is a matter for debate. https://www.globalresearch.ca/banks-are-responsible-for-the-economic-and-social-crisis-in-greece/5567357 https://www.globalresearch.ca/banks-are-responsible-for-the-...
      • freeflight 9y ago
        That's a tad bit oversimplified, not just in terms of what actually happened in Greece, mostly private banks being bailed out [0] but also how that whole situation came about. There's been a big elephant in the room nobody really wants to talk about for quite a while now: EU's most successful economies running up massive export surpluses, which really hurt the weaker southern economies [1]. In that regard, it's in very bad taste, to just go "Them southern European countries are all just lazy and don't know how to handle money" because nothing about that whole situation is as simple as that. Just like it wasn't a coincidence that Greece crashed on the tails of the 2008 recession. In our globalized world, nothing of this scale happens in a vacuum, but it's just that much more convenient to put all the blame on the people of Greece supposedly just being too "lazy and clueless", as opposed to the "diligent and frugal Germans". As a German, I can assure you: Most Germans are pretty fed up with "being frugal" and not having seen any real wage gains in decades, for the sole purpose of driving this supposedly "economic miracle" of the Germany economy. Greece was a gigantic shame for the European idea, left out to die, used for IMF austerity experiments while being framed as "lazy people just don't know how to money", even tho it was their misery which boosted Germanys economic standing even further [2]. [0] http://www.dw.com/en/most-of-greek-bailout-money-went-to-banks-study/a-19234391 http://www.dw.com/en/most-of-greek-bailout-money-went-to-ban... [1] https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21724810-country-saves-too-much-and-spends-too-little-why-germanys-current-account-surplus-bad https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21724810-country-save... [2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/08/11/despite-losing-tens-of-billions-of-e-germany-is-making-a-profit-out-of-the-greek-crisis/#6ac165d95409 https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/08/11/despite-...
        • rainingmonkey 9y ago
          Greeks in fact work the longest hours of any EU state. source: https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ANHRS https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ANHRS
        • YeGoblynQueenne 9y ago
          >> Just like it wasn't a coincidence that Greece crashed on the tails of the 2008 recession. That's a very good point that is completely overlooked in most analyses I've read (and, being Greek, I've read quite a few). On the other hand, let's not forget that it was Greece that crashed after 2008. Not Spain, not Portugal, not Ireland or Cyprus. All these others, they swallowed the pill of austerity and their economies bounced back. Ours is still connected to the IMF and EU IV that's keeping it alive. Not that I'm actually convinced that austerity would help us. And I do believe that the measures imposed on us ignored the reality of the Greek economy. But it was not the measures that brought us to our knees in the first place.
      • arethuza 9y ago
        I do think there is an argument that the German and French banks who originally financed the ill-advised spending by previous Greek governments should have done a bit of due diligence as to what they money was going to be used for and whether there was a realistic chance of being paid back.
  • wazoox 9y ago
    That's a reference to the austerity absurdly imposed upon Greece, Portugal and Spain (and soon Italy and France) though it has demonstrably worsened the situation (not for Germany, though, so you may say that it worked well enough for them).
• ferongr 9y ago
  Don't ask me, I'm thankful for all the bailouts, debt restructuring and the dragging the inefficient, bloated public sector of Greece into the 21st centrury.
• YeGoblynQueenne 9y ago
  Ask what? I'm Greek. We fucked up with money and paid the price. It's not the fault of the Germans.