Why are so many Greek youth snubbing work?

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Canada.com:

Women walk past an unemployment bureau at Kallithea suburb in Athens June 7, 2012.

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Why should foreign governments and international funds spend hundreds of billions of euros in emergency aid to rescue Greece from ruin when — despite a youth unemployment rate topping 52 per cent — many young Greeks do not seem interested in working at all?

That is one of many riddles that the new Greek government must try to solve amid opprobrium and often downright anger from northern neighbours such as Germany, who very reluctantly have been helping Athens to pay its bills.

Santorini deserves its reputation for dazzling sunsets. This nightly drama is best enjoyed from the balconies of Oia's stunning whitewashed hotels or from ancient stone walls built into the steep cliffs that overlook a volcanic lagoon and the Aegean Sea.

Oia and other villages on the island of Santorini (also known as Thera) provide thousands of jobs in the tourism industry. However, almost none of the hospitality workers on the island are Greek.

Read the whole story: Canada.com

Comments

Goebbels would be proud!

July 5, 2012 by Midfield Maestro (United Kingdom ), 45 weeks 3 days ago

WOW ridiculous propaganda

Re: Goebbels would be proud!

July 6, 2012 by Jim Adams (United States ), 45 weeks 2 days ago

@Midfield Maestro:
Which part do you consider propaganda? If you ask me, the writer hit the nail on the head.

The article is only telling us half the truth!

July 6, 2012 by Irlandos (United Kingdom ), 45 weeks 2 days ago

@Jim Adams:
There is another side of this story, one that many of us are familiar with but has gone unmentioned here:

Many Greek employers purposely hire foreigners because they can get away with paying them less-than-competitive wages.

This is true of the shipping industry, agriculture and I imagine manufacturing jobs and the tourist industry as well.

Re: The article is only telling us half the truth!

July 7, 2012 by Jim Adams (United States ), 45 weeks 1 day ago

@Irlandos:
Sure. At which point, unskilled manual labor needs to compete for low wages. Which is exactly the point the author of this article is making. Quote: "The consensus was that Greek youths preferred to stay at home with their parents rather than take jobs on the islands because of low wages and because they considered waiting on tables and changing sheets to be beneath them."

Re: The article is only telling us half the truth!

July 8, 2012 by Midfield Maestro (United Kingdom ), 45 weeks 5 hours ago

@Jim Adams:
Absolute rubbish! There are people committing suicide because they can't find jobs and you believe that they are turning down work that is "beneath them". As for "low wages" there comes a point where it is not economically viable to work away from home when the wages are that low. What's the point in moving to island to get a job when the pay won't even cover your rent on that island?

Re: The article is only telling us half the truth!

July 9, 2012 by Jim Adams (United States ), 44 weeks 6 days ago

@Midfield Maestro:
Obviously, once again, you don't even know what we're talking about here. We're talking about youth and the unskilled labor market. Not suicide rates in the middle aged demographic segment. As for your argument "it is not economically viable to work away from home when the wages are that low" - probably the concept 'workforce emigration' is alien to you?

Re: The article is only telling us half the truth!

July 9, 2012 by Midfield Maestro (United Kingdom ), 44 weeks 6 days ago

@Jim Adams: I'm assuming you mean "workforce migration"? lol. Yes I'm familiar with it (clearly you're not!). To migrate you have to have the means to do so. You have clearly glossed over the fact that some kid from Athens will probably be unable to afford to get a job in rural Greece because the pay will not cover his needs there.

Re: The article is only telling us half the truth!

July 11, 2012 by Jim Adams (United States ), 44 weeks 4 days ago

Midfield Maestro wrote:

I'm assuming you mean "workforce migration"? lol.

The word is 'emigration'. Look it up in a dictionary or something.

Midfield Maestro wrote:

To migrate you have to have the means to do so.

I think you are confusing 'emigration' for 'vacations'. FYI, they are two distinct and different concepts.

Re: The article is only telling us half the truth!

July 12, 2012 by Midfield Maestro (United Kingdom ), 44 weeks 3 days ago

@Jim Adams: the phrase is "migration work-force".

So you don't want people to move for a period of time to work, you want them to up-root from Athens and go to live permanently in rural Greece? Ok, so they all up root and move to the middle of nowhere to work on a farm. After all farms need plenty of workers, particularly in the summer. Then when demand for workers drops to again in the winter many of these will be laid off. Do they up-root again and move back to the city? It's unrealistic and simply not economically viable.

As for the rubbish you claim that only the middle-aged are committing suicide perhaps you can tell that to the 24 year old woman from who attempted to throw herself off of a ferry last month. Seriously Jim you need to come out of your blinkered little world. Stop believing all of the anti-Greek propaganda you read and stop voting for PASOK. It's almost as if you have a case of Stockholm syndrome with PASOK taking your brain hostage!

Re: The article is only telling us half the truth!

July 13, 2012 by Jim Adams (United States ), 44 weeks 2 days ago

@Midfield Maestro:
You're helpless....

Re: Goebbels would be proud!

July 5, 2012 by tieyetos (Canada ), 45 weeks 3 days ago

@Midfield Maestro:
REALY? LAZY FUCKS..52% DO NOTHING GREEKASTANYS

Hmmmm?

July 8, 2012 by Casper (Australia ), 45 weeks 20 hours ago

Bookings are down, spoilt brats wont work...... but hotels are fully staffed anyway to provide a service.
So the question is, are they fully staffed to cater for tourist or swat flies?
I know of many that have travelled this year and the planes were full.
If the EU wants to get paid back. Its about time that the ridiculous negative propaganda stops.
Sure they have problems, but one would think that they are the worse in the world.
If one wanted to, they could find enough to say about any nation. I know. I hear Italian stories, and I hear Spanish stories. From expats of those nations.
But you rarely read anything in the media. Its all about Greece, and always bad.
Greece has always been Greece with its goods and its bads, and people still visited in their millions. And loved the laid back attitude that was in contrast to what they left behind.
There is simply an agenda behind this negative propaganda.

Re: Hmmmm?

July 8, 2012 by Midfield Maestro (United Kingdom ), 45 weeks 5 hours ago

@Casper:
Makes you wonder why this negative propaganda is spread and the agenda is exactly

Re: Hmmmm?

July 9, 2012 by Jim Adams (United States ), 44 weeks 6 days ago

@Midfield Maestro:
So neither one knows what the agenda is, but it is definitely propaganda. (????) LOL. Most probably, that is the case with all opinions that you don't like.

payback is a BITCH,ALL THE

September 7, 2012 by tieyetos (Canada ), 36 weeks 2 days ago

payback is a BITCH,ALL THE CORUPTION OVER THE YEARS WILL BE PAID BACK 3TIMES OVER,ENJOY THE PAIN .OPOS STROSATE THA KIMITHITE .YOU HAVE NO ONE TO BLAME BUT YOURSELFS...