Quote (zarkadon @ 28 Mar 2020 13:51)
Some of the ultra-austerity policies they were forced to implement were severely detrimental. For instance, the increase in public transport fees combined with the reduction of minimum wage, led to thousands of greeks who had minimum wage jobs in Athens, but lived in nearby towns, quit their jobs because they were better off saving up on public transport and receiving unemployment welfare. These people then earned a bit less, but they had a lot of free time which they used to make money by doing small unregistered jobs... leading to more submerged economy, tax evasion and unemployment.
yep, and there are more examples of course. my question, however, was about the big picture, an overall evaluation, and specifically in what way greece would have been better off without the EU (obviously not just about the popular criticism of not allowing them to default, but in the context of their entire membership and the benefits they received from it). i'm not even suggesting that there wouldn't be any upsides, i just think those completely clueless EU bashers should put a little more thought into their posts...