Social Security — or the Lack of it

Abstract

With an ageing population and a weak economy, Greece is set to face a most difficult situation in the near future as the time bomb of her social security plight keeps ticking.² But Greece’s alarming demographics are only partly to blame for what is happening: atrocious state policies pursued over many years made it impossible for social insurance organisations to manage their finances effectively or even prudently. In addition, not keeping welfare policies clearly apart from the running of business enterprises or of the civil service resulted in gross inefficiencies and waste in both the welfare and the production fields. Solutions are now hard to find, and much harder to apply.

‘The social insurance peculiarity of Greece, in common with Latin American countries, is that she managed to bring the system to the verge of bankruptcy before her demographics got worse.’

Platon Tenios, Greek social security expert.¹