" also remember an article stating that the Greek government has about 70 billion euro's of uncollected taxes on the books. How about they collect that, the northern European countries write off 100 billion, and the Greek government does as it has promised the third time around?"
How about they collect that, then the Greek government does as it has promised - and then northern European countries ask their people whether to write off debts? When you look at the Baltic states, post-communist times were in many ways tougher and standards of living lower than Greece today, but they survived (albeit with larger "black economies" than anyone tends to admit); why should they write off Greek debt without seeing Greek cuts first, when Greek pensions are reportedly higher than some of their minimum wage rates for working? Or by "northern Europe countries" do you mean those Euro countries where the numbers look better than the Eurozone-wide averages?
(That raises question of why pick on "north", why not places like Portugal / Spain / Italy / Slovenia, with a higher GDP per capita (PPP or nominal, comparison still holds) than Latvia, for example? Or, for a minimum wage comparison, workers in Spain, Slovenia, Malta are all better off than Greece, whose workers are in turn due to be paid more than those in Slovakia, Lithuania, Estonia? If you look at net average monthly salaries, Greek numbers better than any of the Baltic states, but not as good as Spain? Pedantic, perhaps, but I object to the characterisation of "northern Europe" as one, rich, club. )
Biting the hand that feeds IT
