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Well, Europe should not be generalized. I prefer to break it down into smaller pieces. You have the blue banana which is doing very well and will continue doing so.
and now there is a an emerging green banana, which is like the blue banana but with more of a central and eastern focus,
Finally you have southern Europe, southern Europe is not as wealthy and doesn't have much industry. It relies on tourism and agriculture. This is the problem child of europe. The green and blue banana have been affected by the crisis but the recovered much faster and now they are experiencing growth.
What the blue banana says is what is sort of common knowledge and again without Germany the banana is nothing. The bananas would have been besides the point if it hasn't been that Greece is not part of it. Still Greece is not a third world country and in the global setup quite prosperous against most African countries.
As soon as you look at it from such a perspective, you will see that car buying are influenced by a lot of factors. Greece still has a well-functioning public transport system. A guy in Athens is actually spoilt for choice between trains, buses and trams. For 35 Euros, you can travel as much as you like for a month.
Now why would this guy buy a car for which he probably doesn't have parking space - ( lots of people leave their cars parked in the street overnight)?
You can't buy a car on HP if you have nothing, no bank will finance you if you can't prove income, so this guy has a few Euro's still, but why is he running pass the gold coin dealer (which most people will agree might be a better investment than a car) to buy a car?
Anyone knows?
nipponbird, your assumptions about what makes sense don't necessarily hold if a country falls apart. it's not altogether an insane choice to buy a car. you mentioned 'HP' by the way which i think most in the u.s. wouldn't know - for those that's hire purchase, sort of lease to own.
WHILE many still have jobs, and WHILE inflation hasn't gone nuts, and WHILE the banks still exist/function and they can get into some kind of deal on a car, even if they don't know what the future holds, many people want to have reliable transportation and not everyone lives in Athens and maybe not everyone wants to count on public transportation if the country is broke, so they get a car while they believe they still can, if nothing else, to have a way to 'flee' if looting/rioting happens. and if things get really bad, people can live in cars. many i hear are roomier than apartments there anyway
Now why would this guy buy a car for which he probably doesn't have parking space - ( lots of people leave their cars parked in the street overnight)?
You can't buy a car on HP if you have nothing, no bank will finance you if you can't prove income, so this guy has a few Euro's still, but why is he running pass the gold coin dealer (which most people will agree might be a better investment than a car) to buy a car?
Anyone knows?
do you think nobody in Greece has a job? It is hard to understand comments like this. 75% of greece is working. Some of them have great jobs. They buy cheap cars.
Greek GDP per capita is roughly about the same as Mississippi. Do you think nobody has a car in Mississippi?
True, many people in Greece retire early (some at age 50), but that doesn't necessarily mean laziness. One can work like a dog for 30 or 40 years and be simply burned out.
Don't cut off the trade. A lot of people around the world like Greek Feta cheese on their salad.
Well, if the economy is THAT bad, then they better have the cash to buy it up front and not rely on monthly payments. Otherwise.............
Someone that runs one of my companies has a home \ money "back home" in Greece, we have tv's all around the office that run bloomberg all day so this topic comes up often.
His view is, many were lazy, they wanted no pressure, no skill work and expected to be taken care of after doing nothing work and retiring,
He also laughed at the people thinking how stupid the greeks are for spending their money on cars as if they are fiscally irresponsible, you are missing the point of why.
They are buying it to stash money. His point was, have you ever went to bed every night wondering when you wake up in the morning will your bank account be reduced by 75%? Or maybe your money is all gone.
And buy gold? Its not that easy, it is always everyone to go response in this situation, but A. its not that easy to get and B. Do you want to be sitting on something so valuable in a dense material during a economic collapse? Then you worry about dying.
Buy a car, buy cars, its not that easy for a country to take them away from you and they have some value in the country or out of the country, and they are not worth getting shot over.
Also, people were stashing money there whom don't even live in the country, they have been buying cars as well.
And in terms of Feta, the good stuff comes from Bulgaria, the feta most people eat in America is about as "feta" as the parmesan is parmesan in the green plastic container from kraft (which is more like american cheese)
Someone that runs one of my companies has a home \ money "back home" in Greece, we have tv's all around the office that run bloomberg all day so this topic comes up often.
His view is, many were lazy, they wanted no pressure, no skill work and expected to be taken care of after doing nothing work and retiring,
He also laughed at the people thinking how stupid the greeks are for spending their money on cars as if they are fiscally irresponsible, you are missing the point of why.
They are buying it to stash money. His point was, have you ever went to bed every night wondering when you wake up in the morning will your bank account be reduced by 75%? Or maybe your money is all gone.
And buy gold? Its not that easy, it is always everyone to go response in this situation, but A. its not that easy to get and B. Do you want to be sitting on something so valuable in a dense material during a economic collapse? Then you worry about dying.
Buy a car, buy cars, its not that easy for a country to take them away from you and they have some value in the country or out of the country, and they are not worth getting shot over.
Also, people were stashing money there whom don't even live in the country, they have been buying cars as well.
And in terms of Feta, the good stuff comes from Bulgaria, the feta most people eat in America is about as "feta" as the parmesan is parmesan in the green plastic container from kraft (which is more like american cheese)
If you cannot sleep each night, worrying about whether you will lose your bank account balance overnight, you either take your money and put it in your mattress or buy some hard asset that is easy to buy and easy to sell when you need real cash.
A car is much easier to buy than gold -- it is easily available. And if you are thinking about buying real bars of gold, you do not actually own the gold bars, you get a piece of paper that says you own the gold.
One thing that Greece has in its favour that Russia does not is a stable currency. The Euro is not going to suddenly collapse like the Ruble did. Even if the banks collapse and the government runs out of money, the money they do have is real money that is worth something, not the Monopoly money that the Ruble became.
Someone that runs one of my companies has a home \ money "back home" in Greece, we have tv's all around the office that run bloomberg all day so this topic comes up often.
His view is, many were lazy, they wanted no pressure, no skill work and expected to be taken care of after doing nothing work and retiring,
Sounds like they wouldn't last very long in your company (not your assistant...the lady ones you are referring to). Unfortunately, in the Federal environment I was in for years, we couldn't really deal with slack-offs, because the system allowed it on paper, but not in actual practice. The taxpayers, who were ultimately funding us, were the ones who lost.
I admit I retired earlier than most folks (55)...but I had put in more than 32 years on that job (37 counting my other jobs as well), worked hard, took little time off, had gotten numerous awards and commendations, was just burned out, and felt it was time to go. To this day I can sleep with a clear conscience that I didn't rip off the taxpayers, and earned what I have.
Some people in that part of the world may BE lazy...we certainly can't judge every one. But for every slack-off, it's probably just like in your company or my agency....someone else has to take up the slack and work that much harder, or things just don't get done. Also, in that part of the world, the hot afternoon sun in the summer means that many people (particularly those that work outside) simply take a few hours off for a nap during the hottest part of the day, return to the job, and finish it later. it is not unusual to eat dinner at 9 PM or later.
He also laughed at the people thinking how stupid the greeks are for spending their money on cars as if they are fiscally irresponsible, you are missing the point of why.
I basically understood why....but there are also repo-consequences if the payments can't be kept, so it is obviously better, if possible, to pay cash all at once...as I myself do when buy a car.
They are buying it to stash money. His point was, have you ever went to bed every night wondering when you wake up in the morning will your bank account be reduced by 75%? Or maybe your money is all gone.
That's part of what all the publicity was about. They all figured Angela Merkel and/or the rest of the EU would bail them out. Problem was.....the Portugeese, Irish, and Spanish all ended up with more or less the same plans....and the Portugeese and Spanish have more or less the same Mediterranean culture the Greeks do.
And buy gold? Its not that easy, it is always everyone to go response in this situation, but A. its not that easy to get and B. Do you want to be sitting on something so valuable in a dense material during a economic collapse? Then you worry about dying.
Cars, though, can also be stolen. And, you mention gold....air-bag components are often stolen because the gold in the sensors makes them expensive. Gold is used in the sensors to ward off corrosion.
Buy a car, buy cars, its not that easy for a country to take them away from you and they have some value in the country or out of the country, and they are not worth getting shot over.
Also, people were stashing money there whom don't even live in the country, they have been buying cars as well.
They used to stash the money in secret-account Swiss banks, but the Swiss are getting less-secretive about those accounts.
I think part of it is also just the increasing standard of living worldwide.....more and more people feel they either need or want a car, and often have the means to attain it. Look to China for perhaps the world's best example.
And in terms of Feta, the good stuff comes from Bulgaria, the feta most people eat in America is about as "feta" as the parmesan is parmesan in the green plastic container from kraft (which is more like american cheese)
I grant you the store-bought stuff on the shelves is sometimes second-rate, but we have a classic Greek restaurant nearly (my home town is known for excellent restaurants) that does serve the real stuff.
05-15-15, 12:36 AM
