[Leica] Luis and Steve

[rclark01 at comcast.net (Robert Clark)]

I think they will be around in the current form as long as the EU continues 
to offer bailouts but to reform the system, structural changes have to 
happen. I'm not sure that's going to happen. I do know that nearly all the 
restaurants where we dined did not provide us with receipts when we paid in 
cash and the private hotels requested to be paid in cash rather than credit 
card. Gleen from that what you will...and I do know that it adds another 
cost to accept credit cards. And when we paid in cash - no receipts. Didn't 
matter to me if I received one or not but for proper bookeeping and 
accounting, receipts are needed.
You give a guy 100 euros for an 85 euro room, he digs in his pocket and 
brings out a roll of bills and peels off a five and a ten for your change. 
The 100 you gave him gets added to the roll...

Robert Clark
Lancaster, PA
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Rabiner" <mark at rabinergroup.com>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 5:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Leica] Luis and Steve


> No ones mentioning that Greece was a fascist place for most of the last
> modern decades. There is a vacuum because of those guys finally getting 
> out
> and now its all of a sudden a relatively free country very late in the 
> game.
> One can cast aspersions on the Greek character all we want but such a 
> harsh
> social and political transition is tumultuous. It goes without saying that
> the Greek people have been around a long time and will survive this like
> they've survived everything else for thousands upon thousands of years.
>
> Mark William Rabiner
>
>
>
>> From: Robert Clark <rclark01 at comcast.net>
>> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
>> Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:16:47 -0400
>> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
>> Subject: Re: [Leica] Luis and Steve
>>
>> I spent about eight days in Greece this summer and was quite interested 
>> in
>> what I might find. While the historical components are fascinating, 
>> there's
>> little else there. As Nathan said, they have little to nothing to export 
>> to
>> the world in terms of Greek expertise. We found the country to be a 
>> pleasant
>> place but with a ramshackle economy, very very poor infrastructure, and 
>> many
>> dilapidated buildings/residences. Many structures had been abandoned in
>> mid-construction. The place just generally looked unkept with grass and
>> weeds everywhere and lots of people sitting around. Athens struck me as 
>> an
>> organic place...it just grew up without any zoning, purpose of areas, or
>> anything of the sort. Even the administration of the ruins was 
>> suspect...we
>> bought tickets for a certain archeological area and were told by the 
>> ticket
>> seller it would close in two hours. We get inside and 20 minutes later, 
>> they
>> were shooing us out.
>>
>>> From what I learned given Greece's tumultous recent history, there 
>>> appears
>> to be no loyalty to the government but to small areas and what used to be
>> called tribes. People don't feel any obligation to do things that are
>> supportive of the country economically. On the other hand, I drove on the
>> worst roads I've ever seen and then on the best roads I've ever seen, 
>> too.
>> The roads leading from the new airport are spectacular as are other
>> motorways leading south from Athens. Going east towards Delphi and then 
>> to
>> Olympia, the roads quickly deteriorate to almost paved goat paths.
>>
>> Oh...things were much cheaper in Greece compared to Italy or France, too.
>> Too bad they can't export tourism.
>>
>> Robert Clark
>> Lancaster, PA
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Frank Dernie" <Frank.Dernie at btinternet.com>
>> To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org>
>> Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 6:21 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Leica] Luis and Steve
>>
>>
>>> Spot on Nathan. Scary to think the only taxpayers are the public 
>>> employees
>>> since that means nobody is topping up the pot at all, since tax paid by
>>> public employees goes straight into their next pay packet to be topped 
>>> up
>>> by money paid in by non-paid-out-of-the-same-pot taxpayers.
>>> Greece really is a millstone.
>>> FD
>>>
>>> On 19 Jul, 2011, at 09:18, Nathan Wajsman wrote:
>>>
>>>> First of all, Greece has by far the highest debt, 160% of GDP or so,
>>>> about twice as much as the US. Secondly, the economy is backwards,
>>>> dysfunctional (basically, only public sector employees pay taxes, the
>>>> rest cheat and get away with it, at least until now). Spain has some
>>>> world-class companies, like Zara, Santander (yes, I know it is a bank,
>>>> but banks are still needed), Telefonica, bits of Airbus, high-speed 
>>>> train
>>>> expertise, good medical research etc. Greece has none of those things,
>>>> just some ruins and ouzo. In the old days it could compete on costs by
>>>> devaluing its  currency, the drachma, from time to time, but that 
>>>> option
>>>> is not open to it inside the Euro zone.
>>>>
>>>> Finally, Greek politicians are simply crooks. They actually falsified
>>>> national accounts--think Enron on a country scale.
>>>>
>>>> Aside from its geographic location, I have a hard time thinking of 
>>>> Greece
>>>> as a proper European country. They had their glory days, but that was
>>>> about 2500 years ago.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Nathan
>>>>
>>>> Nathan Wajsman
>>>> Alicante, Spain
>>>> http://www.frozenlight.eu
>>>> http://www.greatpix.eu
>>>> http://www.nathanfoto.com
>>>> PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
>>>> Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>>
>>
>>
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