Greece is the answer - VPRO documentary - 2013

Is ailing Greece the start of a new Europe? Alternatives arising from the ruins of the bankrupt growth economy give citizens control over supply and demand. Local and social; a small-scale economy.
 
Is ailing Greece the start of a new Europe? Will the cradle of democracy also become the cradle of a new economy? One in four Greeks is out of a job, the youth unemployment rate is approaching 60%, and the purchasing power of the average citizen has declined by 30%. But that is exactly what forces us to think out of the box. For from the ruins of the bankrupt growth economy rises a practicable alternative. The "potato movement" guides the way to a revolutionary new model, that is co-facilitated by the government. Local, social and elusive to futures and distributive trade. In the "no middleman" economy citizens are in control of supply and demand. After the tragedy of the old euro model, modern Greece stages a different economy: that of the smallest unit. Is this where the new Europe is built from the bottom up?

Originally broadcasted by VPRO in 2013.
© VPRO Backlight September 2013

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Credits:
Director: Alexander Oey
Research: William de Bruijn
Research Greece: Nikolas Leontopoulos
Camera: Jackó van ‘t Hof
Sound: Rik Meier, Jillis Schriel, Dimitris Vlachos
Editor: Chris van Oers, Jaap de Goede
Re-recording mixer: Marco Vermaas
Color grading: Ronald van Dieren
Producer: Jenny Borger, Helen Goossens, Marie Schutgens
Commisioning editor: Henneke Hagen, Frank Wiering
English, French and Spanish subtitles: Ericsson.
French and Spanish subtitles are co-funded by European Union.

[nightArbitrage]

I wish VPRO had a channel US television. Good stuff! Very Insightful.

[georgiosdoumas]

At 48:42, starts a great song ( rock song based on traditional Cretan music, do not know what the song is)! But it lasts only for a few seconds

[chopper]

Great Look at Greece from a different point of view! I look forward to your uploads more than church on sunday :)

[rosaallen]

Thinking back to the Spanish cooperatives, they should do the same in Greece for the water plant. That way the citizens control it through buying it, and the government does not. They'll be able to make a profit and they'll be able to make sure that it is not priced too high or bad water quality because they live there themselves.

[liang]

Greece, Spain, France and Italy is living on its agro and tourisme, it is not that that hard to survive without industry if your population is relatively small.
The industry particularly 21st century industry does not favor Europe at all, everyone should be busy to build alternatives now.

[tattabox]

very interesting response to the economic crisis!

[MrJoefung]

I dont know why this life mattering awesome documentary ends up with 700 view so far. Everybody shuld see this.

[csaurabh]

Is this a 2013 production?! It's such a powerful and great story, I wonder why it took so long to be released! It is very similar to the Blockchain concept but in the real world - revolutionary.

Also, must commend the amazing documentaries coming out much more regularly in the past 3-4 months. A lot of them seem to be produced much earlier but only released now, why is that so?

[yuweexxx]

WOW! So glad I'm subscribed and watched this video.

[ciceroaraujo]

Cooperatives of small producers to add value and exports would help

[nancybaldwin]

Need to cut amounts down. When 300 000 dollars turn into 3000. Mint coins again. Get rid of credit. And realize that a materialistic society isn't a good one. Really what most people need is place to stay, food, garments.

[JasTheKariol]

26:37 Its called "class war", didn't Vaclav Havel tell you? Plenty of reasons why the market is chosen as the regulating hand instead of class inequality. Mainly because few people like the power structure as it is when there is inequality. Nothing new here.

[globalintenseresearch]

i see, documentary from 2013 when the plan was Mr. Tsipras, (00:18:20 speech)
to become prime minister....well successfully became one!

[onlygems]

Please provide translation..nobody is understanding anything

[gerassimos.fourlanos]

Politically correct "ideology, " lifestyle or fashion will resolve nothing in Greece. They think, for example, that doing away with middle men will solve the problem, but what about distribution networks, which is the very added value of middle men?

I am afraid that the problem of Greece is more down to earth rather than in the clouds: Greece suffers from incredibly bad regulation and nightmarish bureaucracy. I agree with one thing though: Greece has gone bankrupt some 20 years ahead of Europe. The same predicament lies ahead for most European nations, they will be all sacrificed at the hands of a pseudo-legalistic class of bureaucrats, determined to block whatever there is to block in order to ascertain their power (and kickbacks).

[Alfy]

Debts are sacred and you have to pay them so this process and situation will still affect your country but it is nice and fantastic to know that people there are finding ways to survive and to overcome the crisis. I have visited Greece twice recently and I really like your country.

[JillesvanGurp]

Interesting, but ultimately it is about risk and and consequences. The big problem with Greece is that it was obviously risky to loan them large amounts of money long before the economic crisis. This was a financial and political risk that big lenders such as Germany and its major banks took. Then, the bubble burst and it turned out that it was inconvenient for that risk to have consequences for anyone. It was inconvenient for Greece, which could not afford to have its government and economy collapse. And it was inconvenient to the big lenders and their governments (which you can't really see separately) that would prefer not to see hundreds of billions in bad loans evaporate from their books overnight. Also it was inconvenient for the EU to deal with a chain effect of Greece and other struggling countries to remove themselves from the EU. So more risk was taken to avoid all of that in repeated rounds of loans, money printing, and renegotiated loans that were defaulting.

I would argue, that allowing the banks to get away with this sets us up for future failures. And failing to restructure the loans for Greece sets that country up for decades of misery, until they finally pull the plug on the euro, devaluate, and get rid of their debt that way. This is inevitable unless something changes. The current loan structure makes no sense whatsoever; it basically involves people who haven't even been born yet paying off debts of their grand parents throughout their lives via taxes and living in a crippled economy because of it. I think it is a matter of time before the Greek decide that that they are not interested in doing that.

The way out is of course the political decision to spread out the risk of this over time (more loans) combined with a unpopular but very necessary implementation of actual consequences for the banks: debt restructuring with a goal of nursing the Greek economy back to something sustainable. Banks took the risk lending money to a rather desperate and hopeless Greece and they lost their money (or rather our money, because banking is all about dodging responsibility and accountability). They should have known better. and some of them probably deserve to go bankrupt because they didn't. It is likely this cost will eventually be absorbed by tax payers across the EU; as it should. Though I'd definitely vote to let their shareholders suffer in equal measure: this risk was taken on their behalf. But we all collectively backed the governments that backed the banks that did this, and the pension funds, and all the rest. One way or another, we all end up paying.

[vladmravcak]

"Greece is the answer" -that's in English. How about subtitles in English? Not everyone speaks Greek.

[jul]

On one hand they skip the middleman and don’t pay taxes as a side effect, on the other hand they want a working infrastructure.

[diannehall]

we the 99 have had enough.. we just want to live and love...