responde

those are some hard numbers...
well, its that or outright fire one third of the civil/public servants which would put close to 20% of the working population on the skids.
for perspective on my end, what is the cost of:
gas, bread, milk, a whole chicken, rent on a decent apartment, monthly hydro (electric)
how much income tax comes off ones cheque
what is the property tax on a small home in a decent part of a big city/small town and do people actually pay it.
has the "Occupy Greece" movement foused on putting pressure on the gov to make big industry start paying taxes.
Mentat is only as good as the information made available to him...

and a safe and joyous New Year to you too my freind
P.

I have to say my dear friend that you raise some good questions. Gas is 1.68 euros per litre, heating oil is somewhere above one euro, I can't afford heating anymore, milk is 1 euro and some change a litre, rent is in the 400 euro range for a family of four in my rural town, in Athens it would be close to 600. Rent is the only commodity that is dropping as owners can't afford to have empty apartments anymore, unemployment benefits, bought and paid for while working, last one year and there is no such thing as welfare. Those suited technocrats are coming back for another visit on the 15th and are already issuing warnings and sending messages for more taxes and deeper wage cuts. You are ill-informed about the civil service though as there has been already a firing of all those hired on temp basis and a shuffling of the rest into less sure positions. They better hurry up and fire the rest as these taxes that are called haratsi are realy draining us. The economy here has always been based on construction and tourism. Everything else feeds off of those two and agriculture. Agriculture has been dominated by EU regulations and has degraded into a nonprofit organization. Two years of a tax barrage have reduced new construction to zero as buildings completed in 2008 sit unsold. Property taxes is a very good question but were never part of our system here. The tax base has been the GST and recycled money through income tax. What can I say. There has never been a better time to be rich. Ever. Rich people don't get taxed anywhere it seems. A remnant of Reaganomics that just wont go away. Not without blood anyways. You should look up plutocracy.
So for a recap: average wage is under 1000, average rent is around 500, cost of living for a family of four is 1500 to 2000 euros without rent and let us not forget the haratsi tax added on to our hydro bills at 200 euros per month, on average. The average person that I talk to is talking about buying a kalasnikof as a wise investment, with bullets at under 100 euros... today someone stole a Picasso and a Monet from the national art gallery. A very easy robbery thanks to cutbacks.