Bankruptcy

[poliphilo]

What would it look like for a country to go bankrupt? Greece already has civil unrest, with cabinet ministers being chased down side streets,  policemen being set on fire and the prospect of years of economic hardship to come. Would bankruptcy look any worse than that? Politicians talk about saving the country as if it was in danger of being bulldozed off the map, but what I think they're talking about is saving themselves.  They might indeed have to retreat abroad to spend more time with their Swiss bank accounts (so sad)- but the country of Greece- proud Hellas- with its mountains, islands, people and ancient monuments would still be there.

So Greece- or a country like Greece (it could be Britain the way things are going)- says "OK, I'm bankrupt, now sue me." What happens next?

Comments

[del-c.livejournal.com]

This is what annoys me when middle class people tremble about how "the rich would leeeave us!" if, as I want, we raised taxes on the rich. Let them. What makes the wealthy wealthy? Their ownership of actual non-movable stuff: land, factories, etc.

If they keep owning that stuff they can keep being taxed on it. If they sell the stuff for a good price, that's because everyone knows the country has a good future. If everyone thinks the country is dooomed by the flight of the rich, then they'll get a lousy price for their former wealth. The only thing they can actually move is the ready cash they got as rent for their wealth, and the solution to that loss surely can't be to let the rent continue, because that's what's known as the sunk costs fallacy.

(and in practice, the rich never do leave, that's a Tory bogeyman)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And if the rich did leave us (alas, woe, Michael Caine no longer graces these shores!) their places would soon be taken by other rich people- who'd spotted the gap in the market. The rich are always with us.

[methodius.livejournal.com]

They don't even have to raise the taxes on the rich, just collect the unpaid taxes that the rich have been evading for years. But the EU and the IMF want to lend them money (the media call it a bail out, but it seems to me that that is increasing the debt, and therefore more likely to sink the boat than make it float) and demand that it be paid back by collecting it from the working class and thepoor, and not from the fat cat tax defaulters.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

You make no sense I'm afraid. The rich are leaving and it is because of tax. My company is moving 70 of its most senior jobs to Switzerland this year and I will lose my job because I won't go. So I reckon because of that move the chancellor is losing about £2.8 million in income tax and Christ knows how much in corporation tax. Rumours of £300 million have been heard around the office. That's why we need the rich. Because their taxes support people. If they move away, the chancellor has less to spend on you and me.