‘Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse’: Yanis Varoufakis on extremism, Starmer, and the tyranny of big tech::In his new book, the maverick Greek economist says we are witnessing an epochal shift. At his island home, he argues it’s now the ‘fiefdoms’ of tech firms that shape us
I don’t have time to watch a few videos right now, but I’ll take a look later.
Can you explain how, by agreeing to take a loan, the other party is responsible for piling a debt upon you? If I go to the bank to get a loan and then don’t pay it back, it’s not the bank who is the asshole, it’s me for agreeing to a contract I can’t or have no intention of fulfilling.
I get being upset with your government who agreed to a deal you might deem shitty, or with the party who offered the deal in the first place. But to take the money, yell “fuck you, I’m not gonna pay you back”, and then claim the other party are the wrong for giving you a deal you agreed to just seems very fucked up to me.
First off, I’ll start with the fact that PASOK ruined the country by spending massive loans with ridiculous irresponsibility, that’s Greece’s fault not Europe’s.
After that, Greece was now filled with debt it couldn’t pay off. Obviously not wanting to go bankrupt, the only way forward was taking another loan in order to “breathe air into the economy”. However, the Bailout Programmes actually did everything but that. By forcing Greece to put massive taxes on people and businesses, cutting wages and pensions, worsening work conditions, cutting social spending, the people were brought to their knees unable to get up. When no one has money, it’s only natural that innovation completely stops, no one risks opening a business, banks don’t risk giving out loans, and society crumbles while the common folk starve.
You might ask, was it a mistake, was the IMF stupid? Not at all. They were very successful in mitigating their own risks from Greece going bankrupt or leaving the Eurozone, mainly in erasing their dependency on Greek bonds. They never cared about our country or them getting their money back, they just cared about keeping us in a depression as long as their banks stay unaffected.