Forum Post: Nicolas Mottas: "It's not Greece. It's Capitalism, stupid!"

March 3, 2012. By Nicolas Mottas.

If Karl Marx could see the recent developments surrounding the Greek crisis he would certainly feel vindicated. Last Tuesday, the IMF and Eurogroup were trying for hours to reach a deal regarding Greece's new bailout package. In the name of avoiding default, the Greek people will now have to face a new round of extremely harsh austerity policies. But, in fact, it wasn't the country's bankruptcy which the leaders were trying to avoid; the real deal in Brussels was - and still is - to keep alive, at any cost, the politico-ideological corpse of the actually existing Capitalism.

For more than three years now, most international media and analysts refer to a "debt crisis" combined with financial mismagement by domestic governments. This is misleading. The actual truth is that the profoundly unfair and immoral capitalist system we live in - the one which supposedly "thriumphed" over marxist economics, as neoliberals and keynesians use to argue - is the source of it's own crisis. Who can argue that the ongoing crisis, which started with the Lehman brothers scandal in 2008, isn't the worst episode in a series of free market economy failures since the Great Depression of 1930s? In Europe, as well as internationally, the ruling elites are aware of that, thus making every possible effort to put the weight on people's back.

Today's Greece represents the epitomy of Capitalism's failure in Europe. The devastating results of this failure can be seen in the streets of Athens - in the increasing number of homeless people, in the agony of young men and women who cannot find a job even after two master's degrees, in the downgrade of citizens's living standards. The supporters of neoliberal practices and strick monetarism use to claim that Greece used to be "the last socialist european state". This is an outrageous lie. Greece, like her fellow EU members, was always a Capitalist state, functioning under the rules of free market economy. Between 1990 and 2007, a period during which Greece - governed by both conservative and social-democratic majorities - co-signed the notorious Treaties of Maastricht (1992) and Lisbon (2007).

Let's see some facts which are quite revealing about Capitalist dominance in Greece during the last two decades:

1. In 1990, the GDP of Greece was 38,000,000,000 euro. In 2007 it became 208,000,000,000 euro, thus being increased five times more.

2. In 1990, the profits of the companies (both S.A. corporations and L.L.C companies) were up to 575,000,000 euro. After 17 years, the profits of the Greece-based companies had been increased 28 times thus reaching the 16,000,000,000 euro.

3. While the profits of the private companies were reaching the above extroardinary numbers, the increase in the daily basic salary of the unskilled worker was just 15 euro.

Read the article: http://www.opednews.com/articles/It-s-not-Greece-It-s-Capi-by-Nicolas-Mottas-120302-233.html