Why Greece was right to vote “No”

The decision by the Greek people to vote “No” to the current austerity package was a brave but right one.

Past austerity has not worked and it seems rather ridiculous to assume that doing a more severe version will work. Doing the same thing again and again expecting a different outcome is the sign of madness.

What it comes down to is this: a country will never recover economically while there is mass unemployment: mass long-term unemployment and mass youth unemployment. The tax revenue to benefits ratio is the wrong way round. A country can’t pay pensions, for example, while large amounts of tax payers are unemployed.

The longer you are unemployed the less likely you are to find work. In the UK long-term unemployed receive re-training and education because of this.

Greece doesn’t need more cuts it needs a recovery package to get its work force back into employment and paying tax. More austerity will mean more unemployment.