Thursday, September 6, 2012

Greece as a condo corporation

Is is possible to draw an analogy between an EU country and a condo corporation?

I read this morning that Greek treasury debt rates are in excess of 23%.  It seems obvious that they must somehow increase their revenue to service that debt. How?

A start is to increase their tax rates and/or get serious about collection. No more of this "Only a fool would pay taxes" attitude many Greek (non-)taxpayers are said to have.  That can lead to two things: one, property owners are forced to focus on revenue from their properties, leading many of them to move and rent their homes to comparatively rich Germans and Brits; or two, homeowners flee to a cheaper EU country and/or the government repossesses their property out from under them and turns it into vacation rentals.

The government becomes a vacation timeshare operator.

And if they don't, or otherwise don't make enough net to pay their debt obligations, the Greek government could and perhaps should be viewed more like a condo corporation and the taxpayers like homeowners. Government debt is held on behalf of the citizens (homeowners), and paid for in revenues derived from the citizens (condo fees). If the the condo corp goes bankrupt, it is repossessed for its assets, and the new owner can liquidate or operate to recoup their investment.

Who can repossess Greece?

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