Strike in Athens

Today all the public services in Athens are on strike. That includes the public transport: No busses, trams, trolleys, metro are moving. People are taking their cars to the streets to get to work (well, those who aren't working in the public service and are on strike themselves). The result is a lot of chaos and traffic jams on the roads.

The reason for the strike are the economic measures announced by the politicians. Cuts on salaries and pensions, raised taxes. The economy will take a big hit for the worse.

Now, we've all heard the news saying "Greece has been living over its limits", "the Greeks have been spending too much" and all that. First of all, I'm tired of the generalizations. If you want to blame things on a whole group of people, try "the politicians" instead or "the speculators". Sure, there are a lot of people with "seats" in the public service who do nothing all day long. It would be nice to streamline the public service, but it's not going to happen by raising the taxes and doing random cuts on small people's salaries.

So, how about those fregates that the French government wants to sell to Greece? How about the - what was it, figher planes? helicopters? - that the German government wants to sell to Greece? Do "the Greeks" cut those?

(The picture shows Pireus Street leading to the center of Athens from the south-east. There is a traffic jam, but from this position the level of chaos on the streets isn't really perceivable.)