A whole island pretending to be blind...: New book reveals how Greeks cheated THEMSELVES into ruin

DailyMail.com ^ | 3 July 2015 | Flora Drury For Mailonline

[Rockitz]

Greece in teetering on the brink of ruin - and it is hard not to feel sympathy for the pensioners crying in the street and the mothers facing empty supermarket shelves.

Yet those reading a new book may find themselves feeling a little less compassionate towards the Greeks. It reveals an eye-popping catalogue of benefits scams and tax avoidance schemes that have robbed the public purse.

James Angelos' The Full Catastrophe: Travels among the New Greek Ruins lays bare the corruption which filtered through all levels of society - from the islanders who pretended to be blind, to the families who forgot to register their parents' death and the doctors who 'earn' just €12,000 a year - yet live in Athens' most exclusive neighbourhood.

It was the rumours of an 'island of the blind' which first bought Angelos, a journalist, to Greece in 2011.

He had heard that on Zakynthos, something like two per cent of the population were registered blind.

All was not quite how it seemed, however, and it transpired that 61 of the 680 'blind' residents were quite happily driving around the island.

In fact, an astonishing 498 of those 680 were not blind at all - or even partially sighted.

But being 'blind' had its advantages - in particular, the €724 paid in benefits once every two months, and a reduction in utility bills.

..........

[Rockitz]

Don't feel too bad for the Greeks....

[Rockitz]

With the influx of many immigrants without conscience and the entitlement mentality amongst many communities, this is commonplace in the US as well.

[dainbramaged]

Sounds like the bill is coming due. I’ll get out my hankie.

[Rockitz]

Salient quote from article:

But when Angelos suggested punishing those who tried to play the system, he was given a straight forward - if depressing - answer.

‘If you start putting people in jail, maybe you’ll have to put half of Greece in jail,’ an official said.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

The same mess is about to descend on Britain, the U.S. and any other stupid country that allows all of the crooked stuff to go on.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

People collecting disability has doubled under Obola.

Just saying.

[cradle of freedom]

Socialism is like offering candy to little kids.

[cradle of freedom]

The leaders were a gang of thieves like Fagan in Oliver Twist. The leaders (the big thieves) taught the people how to be little thieves. It is always the same old thing.

[cradle of freedom]

Some people don’t believe that punishment is necessary but it is inevitable that fools will bring about their own destruction.

[Fiji Hill]

The same mess is about to descend on Britain, the U.S. and any other stupid country that allows all of the crooked stuff to go on.

And it will be very hard to stop. Whoever gets the Democrat Party's nomination for president--even a Bernie Sanders--is guaranteed to win 17 states, including biggies such as New York, California, Minnesota and Illinois.

[ChicagahAl]

Socialism is like offering candy to little kids.

Poisoned candy.

[mindburglar]

Governments should not be in the charity business period. It’s all just wealth redistribution to the least common denominator. The Greeks are just performing civil disobedience against oppressive wealth redistribution by an overreaching government.

[nathanbedford]

Corruption comes in many flavors.

The Soviet Union fell because it was so corrupt it could not correct itself. Top down management of the entire society and economy could not function if the numbers reported up the food chain were lies. The Poles said, "we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us." When the last five-year plan failed, a new five-year fairytale was fashioned.

We in the United States are facing corruption from many sides. In your face crony capitalism practiced so blatantly by Obama but also by Republican leadership will gradually bleed the economy. As one poster has already pointed out, wholesale importation of people from a culture which is corrupt means they bring those values, or lack of values, with them along with the criminals and rapists. The government is cooking the books producing false economic data reminiscent of the Soviet Union when it claims 5.3% unemployment with 90 million people off the rolls. The entire pay for play modus vivendi in Washington will soon drive the economy down well behind China. The system of intensive regulation relieved by donations from well-heeled lobbyists is lethal for a free economy. If the Greeks had a tax system which invited cheating, our tax code is simply designed to make Congressman necessary to relieve the people of the very impositions they levy upon them. Obama phones are but a symptom of a system of entitlements which disassociates acquisition of wealth from accomplishment. The list goes on and on

One other very serious factor which we must consider in contemplating corruption is the utterly failed war on drugs. It corrupts our entire society. It generates a contempt for law and a contempt for law enforcement. It results in cynicism which creates an atmosphere in which only a fool aspires to be law abiding. It undermines respect for law and respect for the rule of law to replace it with cynicism. It corrupts the legal system from the cop on the beat to judges. It contorts our international treaties. It fails in almost everything except undermining those values that used to distinguish us from Greece.

[kiryandil]

With the influx of many immigrants without conscience and the entitlement mentality amongst many communities, this is commonplace in the US as well.

New York State law enforcement was quite pleased at the "topping up" of many near future pensions with the recent manhunt...

Think of all that SWEET overtime larded on to the final year's salary. :)

[Kartographer]

"And it will be very hard to stop."

"Freedom loving Americans are now chained to open border, hate America first, sodomite, socialist 'lemmings' who will not be happy until they drag us all over the cliff with them."

[JustTheTruth]

Not that many years ago, idiot and greedy bankers who loaned WAY too much money to bad credit risks (like Greece) had to eat their bad loans and fail if they didn’t have sufficient equity. The stock holders in those banks would then be wiped out and any bank bond holders would take losses. Bank depositors would be first in line for any remaining value. Management would be fired and Boards of Directors would be sent packing.

But that was back when capitalism was still a reality in the west.... Before crony governments would buy banks’ bad loans at 100 cents to the dollar on loan balances, and when the banks still had to mark their devalued assets down to real-world market values. Banks were not allowed to speculate and gamble to put depositors’ money at risk...

That recent past is already becoming a dim memory... Sadly.

Greece is bankrupt and the private banks who loaned the money in the first place should have to suck it up... Along with the fool governments and central banks who bought a pile of it. If there are no bad consequences for the fools who made the bad loans, they’ll just do it again as soon as they are allowed to do it all over again.

[gaijin]

Later

[C. Edmund Wright]

yep, we’re headed that way....lot of scamming going on now in this country.

[C. Edmund Wright]

you have a very odd emphasis on this....but tell me, please, how do bankers make money when they loan out money that isn’t paid back? How does that work?

The EU is somewhat to blame, but the Greeks much more so. Again, very odd you take the stance you do, on a conservative site.

[berdie]

Very interesting article. Thanks for posting.

So not only is there widespread abuse of the system by the “disabled”, there is wide spread abuse of the system by people who understate their wages. I wonder if the abuse of the latter group started because they became weary of a high tax burden that redistributed the wealth. I know why abuse started in the first group...we see it here in this country.

Does anyone work there? If so what is the tax rate? (I’ll look it up...but not tonight.)