(26 Jan 2015, 10:21 am)Adam wrote Seems the mighty homeland of the great-great grandmother are wanting change.
The reason why the economy collapsed in Greece was simply because they couldn't grasp the concept of the Euro. Their Drachma system was equivalent of our pence, so for example if something was worth £1.00, the Greeks would say 100 Drachma.
Anyway, when the Euro came in, the Greeks didn't understand it very well, so were just rounding prices up to the nearest Euro Cent. So, if say beforehand something cost 160 Drachma, it would have been rounded up to €2 (or 200 Drachma), of course leading to everything being more expensive, meaning people couldn't afford it and so on.
I see Alexis Tsipras, the party leader, is considering returning to the Drachma system. As you say, there are interesting times ahead.
There is/was also the issue of tax evasion. I think at one point, half the working population were avoiding paying taxes of one kind or another.
I read somewhere, that the annual expense for benefits under the welfare state, was €20odd bn. A similar amount goes missing through various tax avoidance measures.
One of the stories I heard whilst there in the summer, is that the amount of unfinished houses left, without a roof/upstairs is because of the tax laws.
Apparently you start paying tax, when the roof is installed (or something like that).