Yes, going through a debt crisis means selling off state assets at pennies on the dollar, so that private operators can underfund basic maintenance and overcharge consumers for luxuries like, you know, water:
Greece on Wednesday outlined plans to sell stakes in state-owned railway, water and real estate companies as part of a drive to raise billions of euros to help restore its ailing public finances.
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The European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout for the heavily indebted country projects revenue of 1 billion euros ($1.22 billion) per year from privatizations for the 2011-13 period.
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As part of the plan, the cash-strapped government will sell 49 percent of loss-making railway company OSE, 39 percent of Hellenic Post, 23 percent of Thessaloniki water EYATH and 10 percent in Athens water EYDAP.
I hope you are ready for the riots when people’s water bills triple overnight.
It’s sh%$ like this makes things worse.
The method is: sell the assets at an undervalued price, remove the revenue stream from your control, and they tell you that net result will be financial stability.
No, it’s just a slope to bankruptcy and the destruction of the middle class, and it is why the IMF is so justifiably despised across the world.
They could actuall collect taxes as a work around.
Nah.
Mind selling off a loss making railway system…