Greek Workers Keep Working Without Pay

The stereotype of the lazy Greek worker, putting in long hours but not producing much, and not declaring everything to the taxman, has dogged the country's efforts to get international sympathy.

And this clichÃ© has permeated public opinion elsewhere. Greece is perceived as the least hard-working country in Europe by the British, the Germans, the Spanish, Poles and Czechs, according to a recent survey by Pew. Greeks who were surveyed pointed the finger at Italy as the laziest country.

Yet the picture is far from clear-cut. Greeks have less vacation time, and their retirement age is rising from the current average of 61 under the terms of the bailout.

The average Greek worker puts in 2,017 hours per year, more than any other European country. This is partly because there are more self-employed people, who tend to work longer hours, and fewer part-time employees to drag down the average.

There is also a problem with low productivity, particularly in the public sector, which employs around one-fifth of the population. Asked about the public sector, workers in the private sector mutter darkly about inefficiencies.

As the economic crisis deepens and the second Greek election in two months looms on Sunday, CNBC met plenty of Greeks who are belying the stereotype of laziness working without being paid.

Staff at the Henry Dunant Hospital in Athens are still working despite being owed five months pay. The hospital's new management team, parachuted in in February, has brought in a 15 percent pay cut - agreed with unions - but cannot even pay this until a tranche of financing comes through.

It is not communism but the welfare state that is the problem.

And who was it that agitated the Greek useful idiots to demand and support that welfare state?

It infects all of Europe, the US, and Canada. The welfare state is collapsing.

Duh. In the fifties, the left, and most everybody else pretended we had no Communists in America.

Wise up to what the "welfare state" and so many other modern named movements actually are.

Socialism is Communism sold by the drink, and the nation is drunk.

And who was it that agitated the Greek useful idiots to demand and support that welfare state?

Both PASOK and Nea Democratia supported the welfare state in much the same way that Labor and the Conservatives support the welfare state in the UK. European socialism is not confined to Greece.

Duh. In the fifties, the left, and most everybody else pretended we had no Communists in America.

I was alive in the 50s. You are wrong if you believe that Americans were not concerned about Communism in the 1950s. HUAC, Senator McCarthy, and others expressed concern in Congress. Our containment policy sparked by Kennan's "Long letter" and Churchill's speech in Missouri on the Iron Curtain made it clear that Communism was our enemy internationally and domestically. The execution of the Rosenbergs, the conviction of Alger Hiss with the assistance of former spy Whittaker Chambers, and the blacklisting of many in Hollywood were manifestations of the fears of domestic communists. Did you ever hear of the Red Scare?

Wise up to what the "welfare state" and so many other modern named movements actually are.

We have a welfare state. The Depression and WWII helped change the perception of the role of government in our lives here and in Europe, which had been decimated by WWII. The Greeks are not unique in their social welfare system. It is the rule in Europe, not the exception. And we are well on our way here. For example, Obamacare is just the last piece of the socializaton of health care. There are 60 million on Medicaid and 47 million on Medicare. These programs are the result of the Great Society. Bush added prescription drugs.

I have lived 13 years in Europe in five different coutries including Greece and in Poland when it was still under Communism. Attributing what is happening in Greece to the communists is just sophistry. We can talk about the philosophical relationship between socialism and communism, but whatever labels we wish to use, the reality is that the role of government is what is at the heart of the debate. The US has crossed that threshold a long time ago and now we are just talking about the degree to which government should be involved. Neither the Reps nor the Dems are advocating the elimination of the social safety net.

Personally, I find the demonization of the Greeks to be off base. They are experiencing the collapse of the welfare state, i.e., government cannot afford to deliver on the promises it has made. If anyone thinks that we will not be faced with similar decisions in the not too distant future, they don't understand the problem.

Re: #28, everything you say is true with the exception of the nature of the welfare state and socialism.

I believe the welfare state and socialism ARE communism under a more acceptable (to the useful idiots) name, as is environmentalism, animal rights, climate change "science", and a host of other feel good causes.

I do not hold that there was no communist danger in America during the early and mid twentieth century, I hold that nowhere near enough was done to fight it, and the commie sycophants (media and Hollywood) and useful idiots pretended it didn't exist.

I grew up in the 50's too, and I was actually severely punished in my San Francisco suburban middle school for speaking against Communism.

I ask you now, who owns the MSM,...Hollywood,...San Francisco and the 9 Bay Area Counties? Who is blacklisted in Hollywood and the MSM now? Who runs Immigration, Justice, the EPA, Health, Education, Interior? Daniel Boone and Davey Crockett, or Karl Marx and Joe Stalin?

Sure we have a welfare state, we have a Communist welfare state.

You think I am blaming the Greeks and just the Greeks. I don't blame them, I simply point out that they got what they asked for, I hold all other useful idiots equally responsible, and I agree with you predictions.

They were beaten back militarily.

True.

There was the military junta, crony capitalists and socialists.

Right, but let's remember who they really are:

There was the ~~military junta~~ heavily armed centralized GOVERNMENT employees acting by fiat, ~~crony capitalists~~ Fascists and socialists.

All three groups fit the description of extreme socialism.

Effectively the disagreement was about which Communist/Socialist group would have power, not if a Communist/Socialist group would have power.

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