Exports, obviously–specifically high-end consumer and B2B products and services, which in recent years has given that country an enviable trade surplus, along with an equally enviably low unemployment rate. Granted some of those numbers may be fudged to include temporary and contract workers, but I’m sure the true rate is nowhere near that of Spain or even the U.S.
Mod hat on
And lay off about the jackboots. Given the topic of the thread, I do understand it’s tempting to allude to the less savory aspects of German history, but it’s not appropriate in this thread.
First, one says right out that there is no biological or inherent basis for the difference, but clearly cultural and established political culture count. And the southern Mediterranean countries have much weaker institutions. We all forget that every one but Italy was some kind of crappy military dictatorship will into the 1970s - that is in my living memory.
The public work ethic is still weak. And they still have hidebound rules that old fascist dictatorships and socialist crapmiesters passed making them vastly less productive than Northern europe that has reformed over the years.
So yeah, Southern Europe is less disciplined and is demonstrably by the business and economic data, less efficient.
And the Greeks, they have public culture of being lying scum who winkwink at open tax dodgery and grotesque feather-bedding. At least the Spanish reformed, I have a lot of sympathy for Spain.
Spectre warned me not to generalize and now he bumps and old zombie on a topic that might very well render me a new warning. I hope this is not a trap to get me banned…
Just to be on the safe side, I will show you how hardworking the Greeks truly are:
Do not for a second consider to take these statistics with a grain of salt! I am absolutely sure they have not included the daily Siesta in the work hours or in any other way distorted the statistic as was the case when Greece joined the Euro-zone.
That’s pretty bloody laughable. Hours clocked in Greece are pretty fucking silly as a metric, from a country that fabricates its statistics.
Of course the real question is efficiency, not number of hours clocked (and again given the enormous grey/black economies and low-value add in those areas, these are fairly meaningless.
I don’t even know what the fuck this has to do with the lazy lying Greeks, but…
Hey could you cut it with the fuck you attitude, maybe you think that it gives you a coolish blasé attitude but it’s just fucking tiresome and it’s beginning to tread on plain xenophobia.
I am aware that a number of the ethnic slurs that have been posted have been tongue in cheek or attempts at irony, however, the line is getting blurry and not everyone is reading them in the same way, resulting in other posters posting slurs as facts.
**EVERYONE will stop posting ethnic slurs in this thread, regardless of motive.
Maybe it’s just cultural differences. I recall reading in Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia how nothing in Spain ever gets done when scheduled, and trains always come late except on the rare occasions when they come (and depart) early, and manana usually means “never.” “In principle I admire the Spanish for not sharing our Northern time-neurosis, but unfortunately I share it myself.”
A couple of years ago I was a visiting researcher at a university in Copenhagen. The group was pretty evenly split between southern (Greek, Italian, Maltese, Spanish) and northern (mostly Scandinavian). Good natured ribbing about the cultural differences were pretty common - the southerners were lazy and talked with their hands and drank too much wine, the northerners were officious and uptight and drank too much beer. All in good fun though - everyone ate lunch together and went to the bar on Friday.
That being said, this thread is a total trainwreck.
I’m not sure how this any any different than the way East Coast/West Coast Americans percieve each other. I’ve worked in several large businesses and in every one of them the east coasters complained about the work ethic of the “California Office”.
