Should aid money be diverted to Greece

[pdq1]

With many in Greece suffering and soup kitchens being used are they not our first responsibility rather than the unsolvable problem of Africa? In an ideal world we should cater for them all but realism sets in.

[Celticv11]

We have already, over many years of providing aid created a situation where land capable of sustaining thousands now has millions living there and the consequence of withdrawing aid now is unthinkable.

[jake-the-peg]

It may well come to that if they crash out of the Euro

[andy-hughes]

I don't understand.

'Realism' that the famines in Africa are unsolvable by aid alone, so let's switch the aid to Greece?

i could not be the person to press that button - I suspect you are not either, if you are really honest pdq1.

Humanity does not have a finite point whereby someone decides that it is not working, and a nation has had a good go, so it's time for them to move over (and die of course) and give someone else a turn.

This is people suffering - not a ride at the fair.

[New Judge]

Any aid that Greece requires due to the dire circumstances they find themselves in as a result of their membership of the Single Currency should come from Germany and nowhere else. Germany has benefited enormously from the peripheral nations’ membership of the euro. Huge sums (government, corporate and personal) were lent to Greece which they spent principally on German goods and services, particularly vehicles and railway trains. There was never a hope in hell’s chance that the Greeks would be able to repay those debts. True, they should not have borrowed such huge sums but they were actively encouraged to do so. Less than a decade ago Greece was a nation of smallholding farmers with a bit of tourism thrown in and the tax system resembled a church collection plate. Today they have new railways, roads and public buildings and in 2008 more Porsche Cayennes (UK price £42k - £84k) were sold in Greece than in Germany.

UK Aid should be used to bail them out? I think not. Greece must leave the euro, revert to the Drachma, devalue by 50%, attract some investment and foreign income and begin to pay off their debts. The Germans may or may not like to help them out, but nobody else should.

[boxtops]

what about our own soup kitchens?

[emmie]

NJ, there is already a lot of dissent in Germany about how much the Greeks have been given over time. And more bail outs which come out of their pockets or so they believe will not go down well at all.

[emmie]

who will bail us out if things get a lot worse.

[New Judge]

Yes, em. But the Germans have done rather nicely out of the cash that has been “lent” to the Greeks as part of the “European Project”, the overall aim of which was to ensure German economic dominance throughout the continent. (For those disputing this, ask yourself why the financial conditions in the eurozone– in particular exchange rates and interest rates – seem to suit only the German economy).

The Germans have achieved their aim of economic subjugation of southern Europe and that dominance can only be maintained by continual transfers of capital from north to south. If they don’t like it the only option (without fiscal union which is unacceptable) is wholesale reform of the euro. The situation will not be cured by endless “summits” which fail to address the fundamental flaws with the single currency. Politicians are in denial and people are suffering.

Oh yes, and nobody will bail us out. That's why we should not consider bailing out anybody else.

[askyourgran]

We always seem to be the ones on the front line filling the begging bowls, be it Africa or somewhere else. The EU is a different kettle of fish. Imho the Greeks should not have joined the euro at all, their economy was weak to begin with to say the least. We opted not to have the single currency and yet we are paying out for the failures of the EU states that have. Germany should foot the bill.