Minimum wage cuts: no separate discussion?

[Die Neue Zeit]

Until I read today's papers I thought that the "austerity" crap in Greece was merely about hiking taxes (sales, payroll, other income), laying off public-sector workers, budget cuts, messing with the retirement age, and so on, all in line with the usual bourgeois "living beyond their means" dismissal.

However, I found that there was no separate discussion on the minimum wage cuts. The papers themselves wrote of "riots" while mentioning the minimum wage. Under normal circumstances I'm more cynical about such form of "action," but I definitely cannot shed tears for the broken windows of those who would be eager to take advantage of this change to Greece's labour law.

Thoughts?

[Vyacheslav Brolotov]

my thoughts on this are that this will be the tipping point for the greek proletariat. all of them who truly care about their rights will continue to fight this capitalist oppression on the streets of athens. maybe germany will change its mind and water down the austerity requirements they put upon the greek government. but you know what would be even better: if the greek workers notice that it is not circumstances that are making them suffer, but the entire capitalist system. most likely that wont happen

[Blackburn]

Is this coming from an outside influence? Goldman Sachs?
Slashing wages seems to be a very American ideology.
Most rational Capitalists would point out that it would decrease economic activity by decreasing wages.
But it seems a very Ayn Rand approach to this. And I know Goldman Sachs were involved in the Greece debt.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Is this coming from an outside influence? Goldman Sachs?
Slashing wages seems to be a very American ideology.
Most rational Capitalists would point out that it would decrease economic activity by decreasing wages.
But it seems a very Ayn Rand approach to this. And I know Goldman Sachs were involved in the Greece debt.

This is a world-wide plan for "recovery". They want to make up the economic difference by driving down wages and social spending. If this sounds American, that's because this is what the US has been doing for a generation - it seems severe in Europe because of the pace of this austerity.

And yes it is "outside" forces acting on Greece, they call it the Troika which is just the international capitalist organizations which are undemocratically dictating Greek economic policies. They now have an appointed head of the government and Germany has been talking about removing Greece's government's ability to even pretend to manage their own economy.

I feel that almost anything can happen in Greece now. They want to lower wages to "recover" but there's no way Greece can ever win a race to the bottom with other Mediterranean countries and Eastern Europe next door. On top of that the ports are being sold to China which (I think) already owns the transportation to Russia and so billions of dollars moving through Greek ports can't even be used to help the Greek economy. So on this present course, unless people organize a real revolutionary movement or something, the best case sitation for Greek workers is probably something like Depression-era Wiemar Germany.

[bricolage]

A paper said the new minimum wage will be the equivalent of £500 a month which, if you work a 40 hour week comes out about £2 an hour, or just over $3. Any Greek posters here am I right in saying it's around €2.3? Don't know about the cost of living in Greece at the moment but to me, in a European country, this rate seems pretty near to unlivable.

[aneczka]

"all of them who truly care about their rights will continue to fight" ? do you maybe mean, all of them who want to survive? you not only cannot have a life here earning what they propose now, I'm afraid you cannot survive physically. It is really about survival now and when this is not a tipping point, I dont know what would be. Greetings from Athens.

[A Marxist Historian]

Is this coming from an outside influence? Goldman Sachs?
Slashing wages seems to be a very American ideology.
Most rational Capitalists would point out that it would decrease economic activity by decreasing wages.
But it seems a very Ayn Rand approach to this. And I know Goldman Sachs were involved in the Greece debt.

It's true that your more sophisticated Keynesian economists, and even a few particularly bright entrepreneurs, are aware of this.

But that doesn't matter. Capitalism is in serious economic trouble these days, classic crisis of overproduction. Capitalists *have* to slash wages or go broke, as they have to cut prices or get outcompeted.

Ayn Rank and Goldman Sachs have nothing to do with it. Karl Marx explains it all very nicely in his economic writings.

Capitalism is cyclical, so sooner or later you'll have some sort of an economic recovery, and then the capitalists maybe can afford to remember that wage slashing shouldn't be overdone.

But the overall curve of capitalist development is downwards in the era of imperialism, barring exceptional periods for particular exceptional reasons, like say the post-WWII period, or the much briefer period of seeming prosperity right after the collapse of the Soviet Union. So each up cycle goes up less, and each down cycle goes down more.

-M.H.-

[Pretty Flaco]

A paper said the new minimum wage will be the equivalent of £500 a month which, if you work a 40 hour week comes out about £2 an hour, or just over $3. Any Greek posters here am I right in saying it's around €2.3? Don't know about the cost of living in Greece at the moment but to me, in a European country, this rate seems pretty near to unlivable.

damn... and i thought 7.25 an hour was unliveable. :(