There’s free wi-fi in this town square…

The rioting is in Athens, but I’m nowhere near Athens. I’m in the North, near Thessaloniki, mostly talking to workers about how they’ve been affected. I went to a general strike rally yesterday and only about fifty people showed up. People are opposed to the austerity measures, but most are under the impression that re-electing the New Democracy conservatives, the government that intensified this mess by securitizing and burying the debt, staving off insolvency for just a few more years, will fix things.

One thing that I’ve found is that dollars just aren’t circulating. People here take a lot of IOUs and the conditions of the economy force them to. As one private teacher told me over coffee, only about half of her clients are actually paying her on a somewhat regular basis. They just aren’t being paid for whatever it is that they do, whether it’s in the private sector or working for the state. However, the kick in the ass is that if she goes after these debt, she’ll earn a bad reputation and will ultimately ruin the long-term success of her business as a tutor.

One of the hopes for this country is the return of baby-boomers who fled the dictatorship. Most fled to Canada, Australia and the US and they have private wealth and are accustom to paying tax on earnings and property, unlike most Greeks, wealthy or otherwise. Some of the bigger villages are seeing some economic growth with this money coming into the economy. A man who moved to Greece from Canada, after nearly forty years at Air Canada, told me that he alone keeps about five people fully employed, in Greek terms, doing odd jobs. Good for the workers, but bad for a government that needs to raise funds.