6 Comments

1. paul walter

   March 17, 2016

   The Greek People are obviously ingrates. Not only do they have the privilege of hosting tens of thousands of other even more impoverished folk, the Syrian refugees, but get to do this at the time when their own are embeggared in the advancement of the Troika's vsion of economic "reform"for the non nordic world.

   They should stop cavilling, ignore the hunger pains and get on with proper reform of the George Osborne sort- tax cuts for the City and more savaging of disability pensioners.

2. Nicholas Gruen

   March 17, 2016

   It's a very sad situation. But if you go into a negotiation with no plan to go it alone, and you end up asking "where do I sign" this misery is what you get from your financial overlords. Very sad. I would have liked to see them fight. Still most people - even Varoufakis seem to think that they're so far into the monetary union, they can't get out. I find it hard to believe, but they're much closer than me. How long must this madness go on? It's already much worse than the great depression.

3. Chris Lloyd

   March 17, 2016

   I am surprised that the Greeks were, at face value, so much less happy than the EU over the entire journey. On my most recent visit to Greece about 5 years back, I was struck by the sense of community, the use of public spaces and the pride in culture. I wonder whether these indices actually mean anything at all when compared across countries. When you ask someone how happy they are, their response will depend greatly on their culture. Of course, I realise Nick that you are drawing attention to the dip in their graph from 2007.

4. paul walter

   March 18, 2016

   Globalisation seems to work as well as old style soviet command economics when it comes to human need. Lenin, from his grave, would perhaps suggest that globalisation is actually a manifestation of capitalism off shoring its problems.

   Chris Lloyd was astute to observe Greek dissatisfaction stems from the time of Meltdown- funny, that- and they seemed to wake up first to to what was happening, being a more vulnerable economy, particularlly in the wake of a let-down after their succesful Olympics just a couple of years earlier.

5. rog

   March 18, 2016

   Unfortunately I think Greeks are victims of stereotyping; no doubt we've all heard of lazy Greeks and been told to be wary of Greeks bearing alms/arms?

   Greeks I know try to defy this bad mojo.

   They really have made a mess from a bad cut of the cards.

6. Tim Macknay

   March 18, 2016

   I was in Greece in 2012, and people seemed pretty miserable then, in Athens at least, which ties up pretty well with the graph (if anecdata is anything to go by!). But I agree with you about the comparison across countries.