Do the greeks produce anything besides olive oil....and more greeks?
I’ve spent two vacations in Greece, and a third in nearby Cyprus. So I can make some observations on a personal level.
There’s four basic industries in existence: (1) fruit and vegetable export, (2) wine industry, (3) small ship construction, and (4) tourism. Greeks will say a fifth exists....tax avoidance, but it’s ill defined even when an intellectural Greek is explaining it as an industry.
So, tourism is what turns the economy on each island and generates a fantastic revenue situation from April to September each year. Booze, airline traffic, buses, fuel, taxi fares, food, tours to Zeus’s cave (every island has some claim of having a Zeus cave....don’t ask, and don’t waste any money on this stupid walk through a cave).
Most everything is a cash deal except for hotel payments and airline tickets. Those are all legit and reported as taxable revenue. Beyond that....everything is cash and reported at a 50-percent rate.
At the public level....there’s an awful lot of pension deals that exist, and tons of Greeks try to get early medical retirements. This puts them in a awkward position...medical retire early but collect a marginal amount of money for pension (you could be talking about $700 a month). Then they turn around and do work under the table and non-taxed....but wake up at 65 to 70 years old....can’t survive off the $700 a month. Yeah, imagine that.
Medical stuff? In smaller towns with public care in effect....go try to find a doctor at 1PM. They disappear and usually are working on a second job (private clinic) and collecting two pay-checks. Yeah....imagine that....so low of pay on the public clinic, that they can’t make it. So they charge full-time on public clinic and spent half the day over at the private clinic.
I would strongly urge people...especially if they ever clear this business....to take ten days and go to Greece. It is an eye-opening experience. Some of the nicest people in the world, some of the best food, some of the best wine, and extremely safe (the drunk Brits are your worst threat). But behind it all....it’s a semi-failed socialist experiment, and there are hundreds of things you will notice on a typical day.