What happens when the majority of households can't save

[Majestic-milf]

 This is a problem that is faced everywhere and not just in Greece. For me, it's a matter of bad governance and if this issue is rectified, there can be release. When there's bad governance, there's corruption and this would lead to inflation just because these leaders want to meet their insatiable needs and forget that the masses too are entitled to better living. Most people work not cause they just want to put food on their table but so they can settle bills but what happens when these bills are as a result of what the leaders have placed on it's people in form of tax and increased prices of things.
 When households can't save, you have a people grossly dependent on credit and instead of growth, there's a stagnancy that affects the country.

[kotajikikox]

What would a people first government do in this case? Create social housing in order to lower market prices and make it more affordable? Mandate higher wages? Create more housing by giving more permits?

Only those who get slots for the housing would be those in poverty meanwhile the working class is deemed ‘too rich’ to be given a free house but like you said they also can’t afford to save anything due to high inflation rates. They are also the ones getting taxed while the top percentage can get away with not paying taxes.

[lizarder]

What is the result of that? The people are now more than ever liquidating family owned property and businesses to just sustain themselves. Which turns out to be catastrophic for property ownership because it gets very centralised. Banks repossess properties en masse and foreign investors scoop it up also en masse. Locals end up opening less and less of their country's land every year.

What would a people first government do in this case? Create social housing in order to lower market prices and make it more affordable? Mandate higher wages? Create more housing by giving more permits? 

Essentially capital owners who manage housing will always benefit because they can sell the houses at their set prices. I see many similar cases occurring in residential areas where house prices are actually sold at high prices. Considering the conditions of people who receive the minimum wage, it's almost certain they will never be able to afford a house because even with government subsidies, they make it difficult for them to access these services. Setting high wages while maintaining unstable market prices also doesn't solve the problem as the minimum income standard should reflect the appropriateness of prices for basic necessities.

There is no justice for the lower-middle class because government programs focused on addressing problems for this segment of society are essentially ineffective and instead seek to exploit them indirectly. How is the gap in people's lives in certain groups and perhaps you can visit areas whose administration is far from urban areas and all services are very poor.

[AbuBhakar]

Only those who get slots for the housing would be those in poverty meanwhile the working class is deemed ‘too rich’ to be given a free house but like you said they also can’t afford to save anything due to high inflation rates. They are also the ones getting taxed while the top percentage can get away with not paying taxes.

I think the government needs to make a fare judgment on how and who can get cheap housing, Because it's hard for the middle class to be qualified for such things, so from the beginning, before they start, they should arrange it so that everyone has a chance to get what they deserve and to be fair  since everyone pays taxes, so everyone should also benefit from government projects, it's really hard to save in this day and age, you're lucky if you have a good place to live that you can call yours.

[Ishicryptic]

What would a people first government do in this case? Create social housing in order to lower market prices and make it more affordable? Mandate higher wages? Create more housing by giving more permits?

No. We just see inaction. And this inaction of course only helps the large owners.

These phenomenal of none savings and high cost of living have been confirmed to be a global problem, I used to think that it was only in Africa, that these things exist because of the corrupt leaderships in Africa. But hearing about the same thing happening in European countries that are far advanced than Africa, is alarming, although I believe that it is obviously worse in Africa. One thing I know is that when an economy is in ruins we need to hold the people in power accountable, they are the ones that are saddled with the responsibilities of running the economy on a macro level.

I think that we have corrupt leaderships everywhere, if they do the right things to favor the masses they will step on the toes of the high and mighty that benefits from the ruins in the economy, atleast that is our story with African leaders. Africans are migrating in large numbers to Europe and America, if these countries begins to face same problems it means that everybody is stuck where they are. The rich will keep getting richer while the poor will become poorer.

[abhiseshakana]

I don't know in details about Greece housing government policy. I will share my country outlook for our reference and we can discuss which can be applied in Greece. Indonesian government has two program of housing policy :

• Self-Help Housing Stimulus Assistance Program for very poor people who have uninhabitable houses.
• Housing Finance Liquidity Facility & subsidized housing, for this policy, governemt not build by themselves but do intervention on financing, price and risk with specific policy such as interest subsidize for long term house ownership loan, price cap, special credit scheme for lower income family, Government sharing risk with bank, cheap land price for housing program and faster licensing.

I think interst subsidize, government sharing risk with bank for house ownership loan, Targeting based on income not social status can be applied in Greece with little modification. interest subsidize more acceptable than price subsidizes, with focusing on first house, young employment and family with middle lower income, if applied in Greece i think no need to build new house, activate market without increasing price but i don't know whether such policy contradict with EU policy or not. Bank in Greece should be traumatic with crisis, without risk sharing initiative (guarante) from government, i think bank will be affraid with permanent nnon performing loan, Greece government can give guarantee for some of house ownership loan and give lowest down payment. With this bank will give creadit and controlable NPL. This program not poor relief buat ownership access hopefully Greece parlement will approve .

Is it possible Greece government can see social housing and house protection as social ivestment not consumerism spending because economically it has real value as public house / balance country asset, can be rent or restructurize and its value will not loose. For Greece citizen it can lowering living cost, increase disposable income, decrease poverty and can lowering down other social expenses.

[Solodoski]

In the US we have lack of savings combined with historically very high cost of housing, so a primary result is a dramatic increase in the estimated number of homeless people. We might be "the wealthiest country" but many, many people are getting left behind now.

Housing is very expensive in a lot every part of the world and it's really affecting the savings of a lot of individuals, sometimes it feel like you just work to pay rent and feed, which I don't think it's good for the people. I think the government has to look into housing, either by providing more government housing estate on a low price or try and regulate housing, so it will help it's citizens to live better and also have money left for investments to secure their future.

[Versatile_choice]

What would a people first government do in this case? Create social housing in order to lower market prices and make it more affordable? Mandate higher wages? Create more housing by giving more permits?

Yeah, our government need to work in those areas because even in the country where I live things is very expensive and recently there has been a high increase in rent as most people are finding it hard to rent just self contained. And also the salary they are paying here isn't enough for us to do the things which we would like to do because after sorting out our bills we will be Left with nothing you can only have some leftover that's if you Skip some expenses which you will still have to sort them out later so if you ask me I would say that this side of salary or wages need to be giving much attention.

[coin-investor]

What would a people first government do in this case? Create social housing in order to lower market prices and make it more affordable? Mandate higher wages? Create more housing by giving more permits?

If the government cannot address housing problems, there will be many informal settlers who will settle on riverbanks, leading to an ecological imbalance in the city.

Third-world countries cannot keep up with the cost of living for lower and middle earners, the prices and the bills are just enough so they cannot allocate a portion for their savings, and even if they can sav,e it will be wiped out if one of the member of the family get hospitalize, its a cycle among the poor and medium earner.

[suzanne5223]

It used to be that while wages would never get someone rich at least it was possible to eventually buy some property after years of work. Be it at least a house. A house doesn't have any productive capabilities, it's just a roof by pure material standards.

It depends on what you mean, but in some areas, houses have productive capabilities if you have the house in an area where there is a huge cost of housing, and you have 2 or more house you can choose to lease the house.

Then the years turned into decades. We've now though reached a point where most people can't save anything.
New stats in Greece show nearly 90% of households can't even save a single euro after the monthly expenses.

That's because a lot of people are still stuck with the system created to make every school graduate a slave of their boss and the 9-5 system after years of wasted effort on academy certificate.
The issue of people being unable to save a single Euro will only stop when people start thinking outside the box, and prioritizing that will make them their own boss.

What is the result of that?

The result of it is because the government dont have the ordinary people's interest at heart. They adopted the 2% inflation, and keep printing more fiat every year, while they also adopted the educational system that will enslave people, while the 1% keep ruling the world. 

What would a people first government do in this case? Create social housing in order to lower market prices and make it more affordable? Mandate higher wages? Create more housing by giving more permits?

There is still no solution. What they need to do is close the genesis of the problem by canceling the adoption of 2% inflation because the social housing, and higher wages wont worth it after a few months due to the decrease of purchasing power caused by the 2% inflation.

[uneng]

What would a people first government do in this case? Create social housing in order to lower market prices and make it more affordable? Mandate higher wages? Create more housing by giving more permits?

First, the reasons why the issue is happening must be found. Is it due to accelerated inflation rates? In positive case, most why is inflation much superior to purchasing power rates? Is the country into heavy debt?

The worse the situation, bitter are going to be the short run measures in order to try fixing the problem. It's not through cheap populism like giving houses away that the country is going to overcome the problems.

The problem is that the wealthy class of politicians, judiciary and other public employees don't want to make sacrifices side by side with the average citizens. And then, we have a situation where people feel abused by the government, at same time the measures aren't effective, because they have as primary goal to supply the wealthy class' demands...

[BIT-BENDER]

It used to be that while wages would never get someone rich at least it was possible to eventually buy some property after years of work. Be it at least a house. A house doesn't have any productive capabilities, it's just a roof by pure material standards.

Then the years turned into decades. We've now though reached a point where most people can't save anything.
New stats in Greece show nearly 90% of households can't even save a single euro after the monthly expenses.

What is the result of that? The people are now more than ever liquidating family owned property and businesses to just sustain themselves. Which turns out to be catastrophic for property ownership because it gets very centralised. Banks repossess properties en masse and foreign investors scoop it up also en masse. Locals end up opening less and less of their country's land every year.

What would a people first government do in this case? Create social housing in order to lower market prices and make it more affordable? Mandate higher wages? Create more housing by giving more permits?

No. We just see inaction. And this inaction of course only helps the large owners.

Some times people Re liquidating inherited property just to fund lavishness, I know many people who have ended generational inheritance and property for their own enjoyment without and investment made.
While we complain about the government but an inherited land for example is not only to sustain yourself if sold because the money is good enough for any smart person to start up something with.

[Creeper0]

Corrupt governments will never free us from inflation. Borrowing in the name of development and then inflation. This is how the country and the people are always burdened with debt. My point is, when people are crying for food, looking for housing, what will we do with improved communication systems and development? Why don't they use this money to reduce inflation? Why don't they use it to increase production? Why don't they do infrastructural development? Why isn't it used in the education sector?

One reason for this is that the government's control has decreased and the people of the country have become independent and are researching the mistakes of the government. The current governments are for the rich, the government of the poor is no longer seen. Maybe it exists in the world, but it is very rare.

[Obulis]

Definitely a house might not necessarily be productive, but it do saves money over a long period of time that would have been used for rental.
One thing that has made some family unable to do savings aside the fact that they are always on wages is the fact that some family find it definitely hard to manage their expenditures. Buying things because others are buying without need assessment. Trying to camouflage a social class that they can't ordinarily afford.

[Nanga Parbat]

Housing is very expensive in a lot every part of the world and it's really affecting the savings of a lot of individuals, sometimes it feel like you just work to pay rent and feed, which I don't think it's good for the people. I think the government has to look into housing, either by providing more government housing estate on a low price or try and regulate housing, so it will help it's citizens to live better and also have money left for investments to secure their future.

Due to the high cost of housing a lot of money is being spent because people are forced to spend money from their own pockets to live somewhere.This does not save for money which can not  improve their future conditions.People who do not have their own homes and have specific jobs have a hard time meeting everything especially house rent.The government should take responsibility for this and set a specific amount for the rent of a house and should establish cheap houses.By doing this it will be easier for people to live and save and the majority of the house will not have much mental pressure.

[Cheema02]

This is a problem that is faced everywhere and not just in Greece. For me, it's a matter of bad governance and if this issue is rectified, there can be release. When there's bad governance, there's corruption and this would lead to inflation just because these leaders want to meet their insatiable needs and forget that the masses too are entitled to better living. Most people work not cause they just want to put food on their table but so they can settle bills but what happens when these bills are as a result of what the leaders have placed on it's people in form of tax and increased prices of things.
 When households can't save, you have a people grossly dependent on credit and instead of growth, there's a stagnancy that affects the country.

I think this problem is faced in many countries and not only in Greece. This is due to bad Policies of government. When the leaders chose to corruption and unethical activities than the country leads to inflation. Mostly people earn just pay to bills and that's why saving becomes very difficult. So its clear when household not make savings then they depends on there credit cards or loans. This step gradually increase financial stress. Without cash or savings we cannot invest in many field of life like in business through which we grow our wealth. And at large scale this impact slow down the progress of countries.

[BlackHatCoiner]

What would a people first government do in this case?

The most practical thing they could do is lower the taxes on real estate owners and simplify and accelerate housing permits, to allow the supply of houses to go up. Essentially, to leave us alone, on our own, as the Free Market Capitalist says as well.

But this is an impossibility, because it goes against the plans of the people who rule the world, and Greece is a puppet state of those people. Housing needs to go up, so you're kept busy fighting over left and right. It is absolutely economically possible to make housing affordable. But it'd take power away from those people.

[alani123]

What would a people first government do in this case?

The most practical thing they could do is lower the taxes on real estate owners and simplify and accelerate housing permits, to allow the supply of houses to go up. Essentially, to leave us alone, on our own, as the Free Market Capitalist says as well.

But this is an impossibility, because it goes against the plans of the people who rule the world, and Greece is a puppet state of those people. Housing needs to go up, so you're kept busy fighting over left and right. It is absolutely economically possible to make housing affordable. But it'd take power away from those people.

Greece has one of the most liberal property income taxes in the whole world. 15% tax and it doesn't get counted together with regular income so you could be earning millions from real estate income and it doesn't even raise your tax bracket. Isn't that crazy? People working their add off offering services to hundreds of people pay 70% if you account for tax together with insurance contributions but somehow real estate gets special treatment while not even being a productive service.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Greece has one of the most liberal property income taxes in the whole world. 15% tax and it doesn't get counted together with regular income so you could be earning millions from real estate income and it doesn't even raise your tax bracket. Isn't that crazy?

This is definitely not true. Income from rentals is taxed progressively, up to 45%. But I'd agree that both real estate taxes AND labor taxes should decrease. In either case, housing would become more affordable. Imagine if the average person was earning double their wage, instead of wasting half of that to fund a puppet state.

The answer is always to get their hands off the people's pockets.    That requires from the people to realize they're serving the Matrix, though. Pretty difficult task when everyone's having an attention span of a 5-year old kid.

[r_victory]

It's not just in Greece that this happens, my friend. In Brazil, people are so indebted that they can barely support themselves, public housing programs hardly help the poorest, our president only knows how to create populist programs that they themselves say will reduce social inequality, but which, in reality, will harm them even more. There is a portion of the population living on the streets or in precarious conditions. Another example is the taxation of the "super-rich" (as if they didn't already pay taxes, which are already absurd here). What will happen? The "super-rich," usually owners of supermarket and pharmacy chains, won't even feel the weight of the taxes, because they will pass it on to the customer, in this case, the poor, who will end up paying even more for a product that is already expensive.