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Coping with the Crisis in Greece

Greeks have been coping with their extended economic crisis in a number of creative ways. 

Back to the land or leaving altogether

Not a month goes by in Greece without a “back to the land” newspaper feature – young people, not just retirees, re-occupying old family property, rent-free, in their ancestral village. Here they can grow their own food, raise children in a bucolic environment, and perhaps even ply the trade they did back in town, if they weren’t unemployed. Young people who can’t leave the cities move back in with their parents (many never left) or occupy a spare flat owned by the family. 

Failing internal migration, there’s outright emigration; Australia, Canada, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands are favourite destinations. There are simply no well-paying jobs for recent graduates in Greece, with thousands applying for any vacancy; engineers in particular are fairly sure of positions overseas.

Greek banks, thanks to huge portfolios of non-performing loans, are dangerously undercapitalised. Since 2010, they have lost nearly 40 percent of their deposits as customers, fearful of a sudden changeover to a rapidly devaluating “new” drachma, withdraw euros as banknotes for keeping under mattresses.

Many small businesses have shut down. Others vacate commercial premises but continue to operate out of sitting rooms or converted garages at home. Pawnshops are burgeoning, as “we buy gold” signs and flyers in every town indicate. House calls are available for those not wanting to publically parade their circumstances. 

As insurance, fuel and road tax costs soar, up to 40 percent of vehicles circulate without insurance coverage, and many cars are for sale, or abandoned illegally, sans number plates, on public thoroughfares. Bicycling as a means of transport is big, and cycling shops are one of the few flourishing retail sectors.

Winter heating has become a major issue, with massive conversion to energy-efficient wood stoves (especially to avoid punitive new taxes on heating oil). With unfiltered chimneys puffing everywhere, it’s become a major air-quality issue and the government is being urged to rescind the taxes.

Make do and mend

Second-hand goods, including formerly disdained clothing, are now socially acceptable, as is rubbish and roadside-scavenging. Anybody involved in fixing things – eg, tailors, seamstresses, shoe repairmen, auto mechanics – has a huge backlog of work.

Little is bought new unless heavily discounted, so shops hold sales continually. Middleman-free street markets are emerging, with farmers selling produce direct to consumers. Barter networks (using websites and/or open-air markets) have appeared in Athens, Vólos and other towns. One accrues credits through jobs done or voucher systems.

Seeing the state as effectively useless, people take far more independent initiative. Parents may hire a whole island bar for a benefit party to fix the local, structurally unsafe school. Or taverna owners in a sea-side resort sponsor divers at summer’s end to retrieve all the junk submerged in the adjacent picturesque fishing harbour, knowing that the local limenikó sóma (harbour corps) will never do anything.

Leisure spending is way down – people eat out perhaps once a week, not two or three times as before. Many tavérnes only open on certain peak nights in winter. Those that offer real value or prix fixe menus (a recent novelty) are full to bursting, while fancy places struggle. Smarter live-music venues, recognising that some money is better than none, have moderated cover prices to attract customers, say from a formerly untenable €30 down to €15.