High taxes and high spending are the core of the problem in Greece. So the government’s solution? Raise taxes. They are calling it the “monster tax” in Athens. In short, it’s a new property tax that charges 4 euros per square meter of the property you own. It supposedly will only last for two years. Greece needs to show that its making efforts to balance its budget in order to receive aid from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. And how are ordinary Greeks reacting?
“We might as well shoot ourselves,” Jannis Foteoins, a pensioner, told Der Spiegel. “I’m not going to pay. let them shut off my electricity.”
The Greek conservative newspaper Eleftehros Typos noted that while the tax may help the government, “The citizens will go bankrupt.”
A new federal property tax to prevent a financial collapse? Let’s hope they don’t get any ideas in Washington.