Wednesday, March 31, 2010

AN ALTERNATIVE PLAN IN TEN SIMPLE STEPS

In my job (I am a specialist educational psychologist) I generally meet intelligent people who tell me stories worth listening to that testify to the breadth of their abilities and to the extent their development can reach, but who, nonetheless, all feel they are at an impasse and getting into ominous situations which they attribute (and rightly so) to their mistakes of the past and which situations, they therefore feel they have to endure, although they are not directly responsible for them. What I show them is that they neither have to endure the situation nor self-punish themselves, and that they are totally capable of driving themselves out of the ominous impasse they have found themselves in and of directing themselves to complete control and freedom of choice, to the direction they truly would like to take and not the one they have been pushed into for whatever reason.

Psychology and sociology tell us that just as a person reacts on average (including the effect of manipulation), a given set of people may react as well, i.e., a People. As a People, we all now find ourselves tolerating a situation that every single one tells us we must tolerate and endure first because it is our fault that we came to this point, and second because there is no alternative plan, no other solution, no other way for the Greek State to escape the horrid economic condition it has found itself into.

As a specialist then, trained to dissolve impasses, I officially state, and I am ready to substantiate with evidence, that of course there is a solution and a real plan for exiting the period of crisis, much shorter in duration and much more effective that will lead Greece as a State to economic health (unless we wish to engage in a parallel discussion that substantiates that the plan currently under application has no hope of efficiently solving the problem but is there to fill the unfathomably deep packets of world large-scale capitalists). Due to space restrictions, the only thing I will discuss at present will the set of steps that need to be taken:

Step 1: Immediate auditing of the class of politicians, so that on the basis of their true sources of income be forced to return every little thing that they took for themselves taking advantage of their position of power (the first sweep will include all politicians presently active).

Step 2: Immediate possession of all ecclesiastical property holdings, turning every Church and monastery where clerics reside into public property that operates on the basis of owner (State)-lessee (cleric). At first, and to avoid a state of despair amongst members of clerics’ families, the basic salary of civil servant will apply devoid of any benefit or extra allowance under the understanding that within a stated time limit such entities will have found alternative sources of support whereby their financial dependence on the State will cease.

Step 3: Immediate service of the state deficit with the funds (NOT the immovable property) gained from Step 2. From then on we demand from our European partners to stop bothering us with any such demands until such time the next instalment needs to be deposited.

Step 4: retrospective analysis of the use and utility of every worker in the public sector (for every officer including the elected ones) under the obligation of every such worker to justify his/her salary before the People, proving that he/she offers the State in the form of services, a commensurate amount of what he/she receives as remuneration for such services, without trespassing on anyone’s Human or Constitutional Rights. Every one unable to prove that will be made redundant. We also estimate the revenue from the direct exploitation of the immovable property formerly owned by the Church and the politicians, and designate it as the prime asset set there to serve the state deficit and not direct taxation of the People. In the case of off-shore companies or property held in foreign soil, we shall have to study how they will be expropriated and profitably exploited so that the State can be funded.

Step 5. Guaranteeing an average state of living (that is, over and above the poverty line, at first) so that every Greek citizen will retain all needed to live with dignity (accommodation, work, decent income, security, insurance/pension fund availability) setting an absolute minimum of at least € 2,000, net income and lifting of the heavy taxation, mainly through the repealing all indirect taxation that are unconstitutional because they do not abide by the principle of proportionality. Work will be guaranteed by the manpower needs as a result of Steps 1 and 2, and for the independent entrepreneurs as well since such measure will strengthen private business.

Step 6. Guaranteeing maximum and minimum prices for clothing, food, housing, State Welfare Organizations to protect related private businesses/local producers of speculators so that they would not be hurt by such measures. Resetting the market for the comeback of primary and secondary production, allowing farmers/ animal farmers and small plant proprietors to work independently without set production quotas and with a priority of servicing the local markets first, to avoid increased imports.

Step 7. All Banks on Greek soil receive the heaviest possible taxation for Citizens, if of course they prove they have not trodden upon Human Rights, the Constitution and other Laws. In case they have committed criminal acts against the People or the State, all profits accrued during the years that such illegal or criminal activity took place are confiscated by the State and the Bank itself is forced to pay damages to every Citizen or business against whom or which such bank profiteered. If the bank lacks cash flow, all its holdings the world over are seized and its top officers are questioned.

Step 8: for a set amount of time, the Athens Stock Exchange closes down, and all actions of every multinational in Greece cease, particularly those embroiled in financial scandals and a legal suit is activated against them (such as Goldman Sachs, Siemens, etc). Charity organizations of all kinds (such as the Papandreou Organization, the Simitis Organization, the Karamanlis Organization, the Mitsotakis Organization, the Goulandris Organization, etc) are no longer funded by the State and are treated as businesses (that is, they are invited to show services rendered and revenue/profits gained from legal activities), and also to show services that they have offered the State and the People, and which services are over and above those stipulated in the Constitution. This applies to all NGOs without exception.

Step 9: Businessmen of the type of Lanaras are called to Justice and after they are forced to pay damages to all parties hurt by their activities, their businesses are confiscated by the State and they are put to prison. Sports enterprises funded by the State by exploited by private citizens (football teams, athletic clubs, etc) either retroactively stopping any further state funding and turning them into private profitable businesses as far as the State is concerned, or become State organizations and all club followers who wish to support them and develop them are also incorporated.

Step 10: to proceed legally further we need to reconsider a number of articles in the Constitution, such as protective provisions for legal liability for ministers and elected officers of the State, which are criminally protective for the hereditary professional politicians. We need to come to a decision for the amendment of our Constitution which will guarantee total control and power to the People who will be upgraded as the supreme power as the Constitution stipulates. When this happens, every one will be able to see that we will no longer have to suffer the conditions we are suffering now.

Of course, the basic objection or reaction to the above plan I present is “who will be able to do all these/enforce all these in an already corrupt government/system?”

The answer is a simple one and not quite so hard is we really decide that we no longer wish to use out flesh and blood, and also the future of our country and of our children to masochistically and perversely feed all those whom we know are guilty of the present state of things: The People, devoid of any unionist or party control will enforce such a thing, if only the People decide to set foot in the Parliament and demand they be given back whatever was stolen or usurped from them.

These measures are hard, but for those who have been responsible for the problem, not for those who are the reason for the existence of a State, and who were never given a choice, and who now are called to create such choice by themselves in order to survive, and they do that without liquidating any already gained right of the People or sacrifices of our forefathers.