Exit Polls Suggest Syriza Has Won Greek Election

[Saras]

land reform always provokes fierce resistance from the ruling classes, even registering land is often controversial and landed proprietors make it difficult. the UK for example doesn't have all its land registered, despite a land registry having being set up in 1862! i don't see why it couldn't be done though if it were an urgent necessity; unwilling landowners can be made to co-operate.



well no, when the revolution begins to happen - the revolution of course being a continuous process, not a single event - workers and peasants will occupy the land, they may already be in occupation of it in fact, and cease to recognise the rights of the former 'owners', to receive rents, to evict etc.; they will start to run things on a democratic and co-operative basis. the idea that someone could even own something like a factory, or a plantation, or a block of flats would be exposed as ridiculous as people saw that all the land and capital, all society's productive resources, still existed without the landlords and capitalists. private property, the very idea of private property, would cease to exist. and so on and so forth.

but anyway, yes, having a land registry is important for greece.

The more I hear about small details of how most other countries are run the less crap I think my own country is. 25 years ago we had Soviet tanks and paratroopers enforcing communism, and now we have a land register, electronic signatures, fastest wifi in the bloody world and more GDP / capital than Greece. Perhaps it's time to relax and stop paying taxes, working and respecting contracts, get on with the good life, heh.

[Sava]

Interesting:

Greece's new finance minister Yanis Varoufakis is Valve's former Steam Market economist
Varoufakis once oversaw sales of virtual goods via Dota 2 and Counter Strike micro-transactions

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/greeces-new-finance-minister-yanis-varoufakis-valves-former-steam-market-economist-1485336

[Sava]

also, Germany can go **** itself

you spent half of the last century ****ing europe up

don't complain about contributing

go move to siberia if you don't like it

[Colon™]

The more I hear about small details of how most other countries are run the less crap I think my own country is. 25 years ago we had Soviet tanks and paratroopers enforcing communism, and now we have a land register, electronic signatures, fastest wifi in the bloody world and more GDP / capital than Greece. Perhaps it's time to relax and stop paying taxes, working and respecting contracts, get on with the good life, heh.

Lithuania

Then there are neighbours to the north:

Latvia’s economic adventures of the past decade make Spain, Ireland and Greece look like models of sobriety. After joining the EU in 2004 the Latvians enjoyed a riotous few years of partying, as hot money fuelled annual growth of over 10%, only to face the mother of hangovers when the financial crisis hit in 2008. Ignoring recommendations from the IMF and others to break their peg to the euro and devalue the currency, the Latvians instead embarked on a brutal programme of “internal devaluation”: improving competitiveness by slashing wages and prices. After losing access to capital markets (and accepting a $10.5 billion bail-out from the IMF and EU) the government administered a whopping dose of austerity worth 17% of GDP over four years.

Misery ensued. Output fell by a quarter between 2007 and 2009, and unemployment peaked at 21%. Latvians took advantage of the EU’s free-movement rules to seek work abroad; the population has fallen by 200,000 since 2005. But growth returned in 2010, under a re-elected government, and Latvia has lately boasted one of Europe’s perkiest economies, thanks in part to strong exports.

Latvia's unemployment has halved since that peak and the market rate for Latvia 10-years govt bonds is 0.99% (compared to 8.87% for Greece). Meanwhile the Greeks feel they're being opressed because the EU and the IMF have the temerity to set conditions when they're providing many dozens of billions.

[N35t0r]

Interesting:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/greeces-new-finance-minister-yanis-varoufakis-valves-former-steam-market-economist-1485336

In other news, Greece's debt to be paid back in hats.

[Main_Brain]

move to a land based taxation system

This would actually be impossible at the Moment. Greece has no functional national cadastre office (and local entries were never checked). I remember reading the Dutch sent a Task Force to help creating a national directory but I don't think this project is finished yet?



// should've refreshed

[Colon™]

[Uncle Sparky]

I have a Greek fisherman's hat somewhere...

[C0ckney]

yes that's true (i remember hearing about it and assumed, incorrectly as it turned out, that it would have been completed by now). in any case though, such things are really a matter of political will; a registry can be established if the political will exists to do so. and once the system is set up, you can begin the move towards a land based tax system.

x-post: i was responding to main brain.

[Imran Siddiqui]

And, of course, as various media have (or at least should have) pointed out, Tsipras's platform is very much based on dealing quite strongly with corruption in the country. So if anyone can push through the bureaucracy and corruption of the oligarchy, this is probably the best option and they have the political will to do so.

[self biased]

In other news, Greece's debt to be paid back in hats.

[N35t0r]

[OneFootInTheGrave]

I just saw a pic of Croatia's new president.

We managed to do what the US did not.

Elected a good looking (for her age) right-wing president.

[pchang]

well no, when the revolution begins to happen - the revolution of course being a continuous process, not a single event - workers and peasants will occupy the land, they may already be in occupation of it in fact, and cease to recognise the rights of the former 'owners', to receive rents, to evict etc.; they will start to run things on a democratic and co-operative basis. the idea that someone could even own something like a factory, or a plantation, or a block of flats would be exposed as ridiculous as people saw that all the land and capital, all society's productive resources, still existed without the landlords and capitalists. private property, the very idea of private property, would cease to exist. and so on and so forth.

Existing capital will not disappear. However, it will be run into the ground, and the rate of new creation will not keep up. See Venezuela for a more recent example.

[pchang]

Are you recommending the US elect Anne Coulter or something?