Abuse of Power

How come every single group has power?

Civil servants, truckers, power company employees. They’ve all held the whole country hostage in the first half of 2008, simply by not doing what they were hired to do.

Workers unions have this belief that no progress should be made. They believe that it’s only them, the workers that should benefit from any situation, simply because they can.

Case in point.

DEI, the only and state-run power company in Greece, was to sell part of its shares to the German RWE. This move was welcomed by the government, the shareholders, the consumers and the business community. Why? Because any private company is bound to run things more efficiently than the state.

Efficiency is beneficial to all. Shareholders will see their shares go up because of this, the government will develop its infrastructure, the businesses will benefit from shorter down-times in power and the consumers will certainly benefit from lower prices.

So, what does the worker union do? It promptly goes on strike, blocks the streets, demands that their jobs are protected and shuts down the power for 2 hours a day to show that they have negotiation muscle.

The whole country is in need of such deals and these people are abusing their power to avoid losing their job security, because they’ve enjoyed the power monopoly for so many years that they never had to worry about working too hard.

They want to enjoy this extra protection that all the others do not have.

How selfish is that?

Monopoly

Monopoly is actually a Greek word.

I’m not though that this can justify that so many professions insist not to have their professions opened up to pretty much anyone.

Taxi drivers, pharmacists, notaries public and as much as ten other professions are the so called “closed professions”.

Did we really have to wait for the EU to tell us to open up these job markets? Why? So that the government doesn’t look bad and claims to only do what the EU is commanding them to?

Isn’t it obvious that by opening up and regulating a market, you are bound to get a sustainable amount of people working that market?

If the market needs 50,000 cabs in Athens but only has 20,000 cabs, isn’t it obvious that the Athenians (and visitors) will be better serviced? Isn’t it obvious that this market expansion will also create diversity that will ultimately benefit the consumer through higher quality services for lower prices?

Hey, isn’t that what a free economy is all about? Wasn’t it like 250 years ago when Adam Smith established that? Do we really need someone else to tell us what’s good for us? [1, 2]

High Prices

How humiliating is it when the Prime Minister of the country goes on television to ask merchants not to increase the prices of their goods?

Is this where our Fiscal Policy has come to? Begging? Did the PM really come out as saying “Please don’t make our government look helpless against price increases”?

It’s only natural, isn’t it?

When governments are elected by protecting the benefits of their electoral base, they are in effect leaving all the rest of us unprotected.

Big businesses aside, the government is protecting farmers, journalists, truckers, civil employees, and so many other professions.

Why? Because they’ve let the situation get so much out of hand that these people will not hesitate to paralyse the whole country, thinking that it’s their right that they be extra-protected unlike the rest of us.

Yesterday it was farmers who completely blocked the national motorway breaking the country in half. Today it’s the truckers who refuse to distribute fuel to petrol stations, leaving millions unable to drive to work.

Tomorrow, it can be pretty much anyone. Take your pick: doctors take bribes to perform operations in public hospitals; policemen that won’t mind overzealously beating up suspects; workers at public utilities companies that will not hesitate to cut people’s power to show they have the strength to negotiate, in order to avoid having their public organisation sold to the Germans.

Way to go!