Go Greek for a Week
There is a new reality show in Britain airing Nov 7. 2011 – “Go Greek for a week”
Just a matter of time the franchise shows up in USA. Probably named as “Go Washingtonian DC/ Californian/ Illinoisan for a week”
From Chanel4
Three British families try out the tax, pensions and work practices that caused Greece’s economic crisis and brought on the austerity measures aimed at cutting the deficit and qualifying for EU bailouts.
A 54-year-old British hairdresser discovers the generosity of the Greek pensions system, which still allows hairdressers, pastry chefs, radio continuity announcers and people in almost 600 other jobs to retire aged 53 at 90% of their final salary because their jobs are defined as hazardous.
A bus driver reaps the rewards of the Greek approach to state-run services, where bus drivers could be paid up to almost double the national average salary and receive extra bonuses for arriving at work early and for checking bus tickets.
And a British surgeon is delighted to discover how paying income tax the Greek way will transform his disposable income.
The personal experiences of the three main characters are supported by expert interviews that establish the patterns of tax evasion, corruption and mismanagement that have helped to sink the Greek economy.
November 7th, 2011 at 4:18 pm
“Go Greek for a week” humorously illustrated something that most of the world knows, the British seem to be an exception. The situation described in the programme is real, and obviously absurd and unsustainable, however, that is normality for most of the word, from Angola to Belarus, from Colombia to Djibouti, from Ecuador to Fiji and so on. The UK is an exception, with a few other countries such as Denmark, Norway, Sweden…
The world is corrupt, people put up with it because they have no alternative. Italy turned corruption and bureaucracy to a fine art making the Greek look like amateurs. India, Pakistan, Russia invented incredibly convoluted ways of turning corruption and complicate procedures into a masterpiece of intricacy.
It’s a centuries old system which will not be easy to eradicate, particularly because for a large majority of the world’s population that is the only way they know and they can’t even believe a fair system is possible.
November 7th, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Watching this tv shows reminds me of my country too, Italy. My dentist use to ask me: do you want to pay € 100.00 with the invoice or € 80.00 without ? My haunty was a policemen, she quit her job at 40 years old and she got the pension from that age. Especially in south italy it’s a common practice for someone who wants to get elected to give jobs to the people who then of course give their vote. Lots of corruption if you want to do so something you need to pay so probably your request will go through with the local political. It’s the way it is and you have to do it if you want to survive. Another example: I was entitle to get unemployment money from the government so I received for 8 months € 800 every months directly sent to my bank account. That was during the summer time when there are plenty of jobs in the tourism industry (I work in the tourism industry) and I was never contacted by the unemployment agency who should tell you when a job is available. I was so sure that nobody will contact me that during the meantime I was working for an american cruise ship company. I am not proud of what I did but the things is that every day you heard stories of corrupted politics, people stealing money everywhere that at the end you just follow the system.
Best Reagrds
Tommaso luci
November 9th, 2011 at 6:40 am
GO BRITISH FOR A WEEK…..
While the ship of the Old Continent is submerged in the swamp of economic downturn, it is hypocritical and stupid to see the genteel lords of the A Class laughing at the the rogue deck. It is a sad picture of a problematic society to chuckle over the problems of another society through TV trash, making a blind eye to their own mess.
If people in Britain find it funny to “live a week like Greek”, through Channel 4′s new reality show, I’m sure no one would not want to take part in a similar TV program entitled «Go British for a week» .
So let us imagine three Greek families participating in the reality and experiencing unemployment, losing their home and diving into alcoholism for a week, offering plenty of laughter to viewers.
The first Greek family will live in British levels of poverty and their children will be amongst 600.000 children who are malnourished nowdays in the UK and have the opportunity to live as a hero of their childhood, Oliver Twist.
The second family will enter the list of victims of alcoholism that is eating away the innards of the British society and will be within the25% of adult Britons consume alcohol at levels that endanger their health.
As for the third family, the show will live the experience of living under bridges and at parks, with the company of thousands more homeless people seeking shelter even in the most unlikely parts of British cities.
The game show will be based on the hard evidence that by 2013 approximately 3.1 million children, 2.5 million parents, 4 million adults without children and 2.1 million pensioners in the the UK will be living in absolute poverty. A term used in cases where the employee’s salary falls below 60% of median income.
Yet according to a report published by the Information Centre of the British National Health Service (NHS), one in three men and one in six women consume alcohol both at risk of liver damage or occurrence of psychological problems like depression.
Finally, Britain has one of the highest rates of homelessness in Europe is estimated that 4 in 1,000 people are homeless.
«Go British for a week» and have fun …
November 28th, 2011 at 7:46 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvgae3re58s&feature=player_embedded
December 24th, 2011 at 10:02 am
A few responses:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfufT3mXOV4
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovnNBzozP5s
3. http://www.antibaro.gr/node/3475
December 29th, 2011 at 12:08 pm
There are some interesting responses related to this kind of thread in “http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2011/11/07/channel-4-reality-show-go-greek-for-a-week-genious-or-tasteless/” that I will attempt to reply to if I can figure out how to post to their website. For example, in see a comment from “Jim the Aussie”. I should like to request that sources are used for such assertions. I assume the source for the assertion that “each BRIT owes US$150,000 as external debt, the second most after the Yanks at US$48,000 pp. Greece comes in the top 20 at….19th at US$46,000pp” comes from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt this also shows UK external debt by GDP at 400% GDP at US$144,338 with Australian debt in position 12 as 95% GDP at US$52,596, with Luxemburg at 3443% GDP at US$3,696,467! For such assertions and the one from , I would hope for an attempt to explain such statistics. I note from the widepedia entry “For informational purposes several non-sovereign entities are also included in this list. Note that this list is gross debt, not net debt. For net debt, see Net international investment position.”
I see from http://www.worldsalaries.org/busdriver.shtml that Australia tops their list. Perhaps a post from someone with a more economic background could help clear that up for me and others.
Bus Driver Job Average Salary”, although I did not see Greece is not in the list. There are also different ways to measure averages of course.
As to the assertions from “mathaios” I should also like to request the sources from which he quotes. Perhaps he can explain the tax rules related to shipping businesses in Greece at the same time.
I have no affiliation with the UK Channel 4 TV station but did bother to watch the program as I am interested in economics and helping Greece with their obvious present difficulties.