things have reached a pretty pass when "anarchists" are fighting for gigantic bureaucracies, lifetime patronage positions, infinite state pensions, and so on. i'd rather see them enthusing about austerity or encouraging the useless thing to collapse.
But though salaries have been cut, the government has yet to lay off anyone. The main reason is also one of the very reasons that Greece got into trouble in the first place: The government is in many ways an army of patronage appointments built up over decades. When election time rolls around, state workers become campaign workers, and their reach is enormous. There are so many of them that almost every family has one....
The government has about 700,000 employees and 80,000 more who work for government-owned entities like the power company. Thirty years ago, experts say, the public sector was about one-third that size. (Until a census was carried out last year, however, government officials admitted they did not really know how many employees they had.)
Even if the new plan passes, it may yet run into legal challenges. Greece’s Constitution grants its public servants lifetime tenure, a situation that may go a long way toward explaining their indifferent attitude toward getting things done.
